**r^ f&^ -jtel RUBLIC SKRVICKS HON. JAMES G. BLAINE THE BRILLIANT ORATOR AND SAGACIOUS STATESMAN. THE BOSOM FRIEND OF THE LAMENTED GARFIELD, AND NOW THE CHOICE OF THE NATION FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. PREPARED WITH GREAT CARE BY HIS INTIMATE FRIEND AND ASSOCIATE, H. J. RAMSDELL, ESQ. For twenty, years a, prominent Journalist at Washington. ALSO THE LIFE OF THE COURAGEOUS SOLDIER, DISTINGUISHED SENATOR AND NOMINEE FOR THE VICE-PRESIDENCY, GEN. JOHN A. LOGAN, BY BKN. PERLE^Y POORS, Author of Life of Napoleon, Gen. Bumside, &c., for fifty years a popular Journalist at Washington, and twenty-two years an Officer of the U. S. Senate. PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED. W. W. WILLIAMS, PUBLISHER: CLEVELAND, OHIO. Copyright. According to Act of Congress, By Ai.i KI-:D HAMILTON, [884. LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA BARBARA PREFACE CAMPAIGN Biographies are a national neces- sity. Why? Curiosity concerning candidates prompts many persons to secure and read them, but there is a broader and deeper reason for their production than the demand of mere curi- osity. Our Presidents are far from being absolute monarchs. The humblest citizen has no need to stand in personal fear of our Chief Magistrate. He is a citizen among his fellow-citizens, like them amenable to the laws of the land. And yet the Presidency is no sinecure. The President is not a figure head to the good "Ship of State." Nor is he the commander. He is rather the pilot. His hand is on the helm. He directs the move- ments so long as they be presumptively right and reasonably safe ; but there is a commander in the embodied nation whose word can dismiss the pilot, and whose might can control the ship, whether it be for her safety or her loss. The people know their power. They make and 6 PREFACE. unmake Presidents. But they do both these duties with reason and for cause, and this is why the thoughtful people will read about the candidates, for whom their votes are asked. Here rests, therefore, the national necessity for Campaign Biographies. And this Biography of the Republican candi- dates for our highest national offices is a most worthy one? Long before the nominating Con- vention met, careful inquiry was entered into to discover the certainties, the probabilities, and the possibilities of the approaching contest. The cer- tainties were few; the possibilities were unlimited. But all promising lines were worked, and, at no small expense, material was gathered concerning every probable candidate. In none of these experimental efforts was there better success than in the case of those on whom the uncertain honors fell at last. Forwarded beyond all compeers by this prelim- inary work, and vigorously pushed, night and day, by competent authors, this Biography of the Republican nominees is believed to be the first in the field, and wholly worthy of the nation's patronage. THE PUBLISHERS. CONTENTS. PREFATORY . . 1-18 BIOGRAPHY OF HON. JAMES G. ELAINE. CHAPTER I. ANCESTRY AND EARLY LIFE. "Blood" Maternal Ancestry Paternal Ancestry Ancestral Posses- sions Revolutionary Record Birth-place Early " Schooling " Youthful Sports Early Straggles At Lancaster, Ohio The Young Collegian College Life A Hero Graduation "The Duty of an Educated American " Prophetic Utterances Teaching Western Military Institute Philadelphia Institution for the Blind Miss Stan- wood Removal to Maine The Kennebec Journal Growing Repu- tation In the Legislature Chairman of the State Committee The Portland Advertiser An Author I 9~39 CHAPTER II. POLITICAL AND OFFICIAL CAREER. Growing Popularity in Maine Fremont's Nomination Elaine's First Speech His First Public Office To the Legislature Speaker To Congress Blaine and President Lincoln At His Desk Drafted Reelected to Congress Leader of the House Admirable Work Won- derful Endurance Habits of Life' Quick Perception Good Judgment Firm Decision 4-5 CHAPTER III. PERSONAL TRAITS AND CHARACTERISTICS. Keen Humor Quaint Anecdote General Literature Modern Oratory Coolness Readiness Repartee Courage Candor Clearness of Statement Satire Graciousness Courtesy Studiousness Persis- tency Organizing Victor}' Dignified Religious Associations Diplo- matic 51 65 8 < <>N rra CHAPTER IV. WARM-HEARTED AND BELOVED. Hlainc's Love of Home An American Letter to Washington, Pa. Early Popularity Undiminished Opinions from Augusta "Unstinted Praise " " A Model of Honor " Absolute Unanimity Practical Gen- erosity Dr. Ecob's Statement Conscience in a Vote .... 66-76 CHAPTER V. AN AMERICAN OF THE AMERICANS. .vn Nation First American in all Aspirations Active Patriotism Steamers to Brazil Subsidizing Steamers " Everything American " Shrinking Trade Tributary to Great Britain Hi-metallic Currency Trade Dollars 77-^5 CHAPTER VI. A FRIEND OF LABOR AND ENTERPRISE.. Accustomed to Work Sympathy with Workers Favoring American Industry Elevating Laborers Urging Honest Money Greenback De- lusions Fair Wages Independent Farmers The Newer States Coolie Labor Labor-Saving Machinery Unpaid Toilsmen . . 86-96 CHAPTER VII. THE ORATOR. His Public Speaking Personal Appearance Spirit Garfield's Eulogy A Magnificent Peroration Directness Force Pointedness His Poli- tical Creed 97-102 CHAPTER VIII. THE BRILLIANT SPEAKER. A High Office British Speakership American Speakership Its Pecu- liar Difficulties Immense Responsibility Committees Chairman- ships Erratic Members Assigning the Floor In the Chair Starting Business Avoiding Confusion Dexterity Fairness Friendliness Sagacity Retirement from the Speakership Closing Address Salvos of Applause 103-115 CHAPTER IX. DARKER DAYS. Gathering Clouds Opposing Combinations " The Rebel Brigadiers " Leading the Minority " Drawing the Fire " General Amnesty The Force Bill Responsibility of Jeff Davis Opposed by Senator Hill The " Maine Yankee" Skimiishint,' with " vSunset" Cox Garfield in the Fight Charge of the " Plumed Knight " A Parliamentary Stroke CONTENTS. 9 An Era of Investigations Aspersions Multiplying Personal Explana- tion Uncomfortable "Flea Hunt" "Dragnet" Resolutions Grand Explosion Mr. Mulligan "The Knight" Again in the Saddle A Suppressed Dispatch " Schoolmaster from Maine " No Condemna- tion Sunstroke Convention of '76 The Popular Will De- feated . . . . ... 116-144 CHAPTER X. SECRETARY OF STATE. Garfield and Elaine Meet Their Growing Friendship Garfield's First Choice An Honorable Post A Splendid Acceptance The Terrible Tragedy Confidential Relations Brief but Burdensome The Medical Telegrams Perplexing Diplomacy Central American Affairs The Nicaraguan Canal Clayton-Bulwer Treaty The Hegemony Peruvian Affairs More Investigations A "Smelling Committee" Elaine's Peace Policy 145-172 CHAPTER XI. MR. ELAINE'S HOMES. How Eminent Men Live Dupont Circle, Washington Brick and Brown Stone Exterior Interior State Street, Augusta, Me. Exterior In- terior 173-181 CHAPTER XII. SEEN BY ENGLISH EYES. London World's Correspondent Fifteenth Street, Washington House Described Company Family Adornments Greeting Personal Ap- pearance 182-187 CHAPTER XIII. KEENNESS OF PERCEPTION. High Order of Perception A Specious Bill Merciless Exposure Re- sistless Ridicule The Real Motive Exposed Governor Kent's Opinion Disparaging Questions Thad. Stevens' Opinion 188-200 CHAPTER XIV. " STIRRING UP STRIFE." A Popular Accusation Southern School-Books Arithmetical Examples Rhetoric for Schools Personal Skirmishing Historic Addresses Vapid Rhetoric Threatening Condemned 201-210 CHAPTER XV. WITHERING SARCASM. Coercing the Executive Stopping Appropriations Cutting off Supplies New Doctrines Dangerous Theories Prophetic Utterances Wither- ing Denunciation . . 211-219 IO CONTEN 1 9. CHAPTER XVI, IRISH-AMERICAN AND GERMAN QUESTIONS. Scotch-Irish Ancestry Friendly Sons of St. Patrick Blaine's Letter to an Irishman Prosperity of the Irish The Steubens at Yorktown Honors to German Patriots Thanks from the German Emperor. . . 220-227 CHAPTER XVII. ENFRANCHISED OR DISFRANCHISED. The Negro Voter Questions Concerning him Wrong Views The Case Settled An Elevating Power Educational Test Property Test En franchisement Right 228-233 CHAPTER XVIII. THE CHINESE QUESTION. No True Immigration Low Character of Comers Never Assimilate Degrade Labor Danger Near No Official Endorsement Retalia- tion 234-237 CHAPTER XIX. AMERICAN SHIP BUILDING AND COMMERCE. Dependence on England Help for Internal Improvements Great Brit- ain's Example French Policy Italian Policy What to do Enter the Race Curtail Naval Expenditures Subsidize American Ships Invite Competition 238-247 CHAPTER XX. MUNICIPAL DEBT. A Quadruple Burden How it Grows Debt Necessary Debts Needless Results of Debt Remedies Jefferson's Rule 248-25 1 CHAPTER XXI. IRREDEEMABLE PAPER CURRENCY. A Sound Financial Policy Evils of Paper Money A Forced Exception Legal Tender Notes Absolute Necessity 252-254 CHAPTER XXII. PURITY OF THE BALLOT BOX. Election Frauds Black Voters Intimidated White Southern Voters Tri- umphant No Abridgement Allowable Reduced Representation Fair Elections Everywhere Peace Desired Purity Demanded Equal Rights, but Nuthing More 255-262 CONTENTS. I I CHAPTER XXIII. AN AFTER-DINNER SPEECH. A Crucial Test New England Dinner A Brother-in-law New Eng- land Influence Abused Aspiring Serious Comments " May Flow- er " Furniture Died Without the Sight 263-268 CHAPTER XXIV. THE PLUMED KNIGHT. An Accepted Title Its Author The demand of '76 The Man who met the Demand A Grand Year An Armed Warrior A Plumed Knight A Shining Lance A Standard Bearer The Prince of Parliamentar- ians The Leader of Leaders Knightly Deeds ...... 269-273 CHAPTER XXV. OUT OF POLITICS. Withdrawal from the Cabinet In his Pleasant Home At his History No part in Politics Nominated On the Course The Outlook 274-276 CHAPTER XXVI. MR. BLAINE'S ASSOCIATE. John A. Logan for Vice President His Farewell to the Army of the Ten- nessee 277-282 THE NOMINATING CONVENTION. Chapter I. The Convention 285 Chapter II. Personelle of the Convention 295 Chapter III. The Platform 322 Chapter IV. Naming the Candidates 332 Chapter V. The Choice 344 Chapter VI. Congratulations and Rejoicings 353 Chapter VII. Notifying the Candidates 367 Chapter VIII. Letters of Acceptance , , , 377 12 CONTENTS. OUR PRESIDENTS. 1. George Washington 385 2. John Adams 399 3. Thomas Jefferson 405 4. James Madison 415 5. James Monroe 418 6. John Quincy Adams 422 7. Andrew Jackson 426 8. Martin Van Buren 433 9. William Henry Harrison 43> 10. John Tyler 440 11. James Knox Polk 444 12. Zachary Taylor 448 13. Millard Fillmore 455 14. Franklin Pierce 458 15. James Buchanan 462 16. Abraham Lincoln 467 17. Andrew Johnson 479 18. Ulysses Simpson Grant 482 19. Rutherford Birchard Hayes 494 20. James Abram Garfield 498 21. Chester Allan Arthur 529 LIFE OF SENATOR JOHN A. LOGAN. CHAPTER I. The Boy The Student The Soldier 537-541 C H A PT E R II. The Student The Lawyer The Legislator 542-546 CHAPTER III. Representative in Congress Washington 549~554 CHAPTER IV. Stormy Scenes in Congress Hostilities Commenced 555-5^2 CHAPTER V. The Colonel Belmont Fort Henry. Fort Donelsou . . . . , 563-569 CONTENTS. 1 3 CHAPTER VI. Brigadier-General Corinth Jackson The Patriot 57-575 CHAPTER VII. Major-General Vicksburg The Orator 576-582 CHAPTER VIII. Corps Commander Kenesaw Peach Tree Creek 583-588 CHAPTER- IX. The Volunteer Ezra Chapel The Champion of the Union . . . 591-596 CHAPTER X. Civil Life The Representative in Congress 597602 CHAPTER XI. The Legislator The Manager of Impeachment 603-608 CHAPTER XII. The Legislator The Grand Army 609-615 CHAPTER XIII. The Senator The Soldiers' Friend 616-621 CHAPTER XIV. Return to the Senate Republican Convention 622-626 CHAPTER XV. The Soldier Statesman The Candidate 627-632 THE CITIZEN'S HAND-BOOK. 1 . Bird- Eye View of Presidential Contest 635 2. Tables of Presidential Elections 643 3. Residential Election of 1884 646 4. Qualifications of Voters 647 5. Presidents 648 6. Vice Presidents 649 7. Cabinets 649 8. Commanders of Army 655 1 4 CONTENTS. 9. Commanders of Na\y 656 10. Speakers of Congress 657 n. Congressional Representation of .States 657 1 2. Supreme Court Justices 659 13. Homes of Chief Officers 660 14. Our Representatives Abroad 661 15. Representatives from Abroad 662 16. Pay of Navy Officers 663 17. Pay of Army Officers 664 18. Pensions Paid 664 19. Balance of Trade 665 20. Revenues 666 21. National Debt 667 22. Political Divisions of Congress 668 23. Constitution of the United States 669 ILLUSTRATIONS. HON. JAMES G. ELAINE (steel), . . . Frontispiece. BIRTHPLACE OF HON. JAMES G. ELAINE, .... 23 WASHINGTON AND JEFFERSON COLLEGE, . . . . 33 BURIAL-PLACE OF ELAINE'S PARENTS, 69 RETIRING FROM THE SPEAKERSHIP, 113 MR. ELAINE AT GARFIELD'S ASSASSINATION, . .151 ELAINE'S MANSION AT WASHINGTON, D. C, . . .175 ELAINE'S SUMMER RESIDENCE AT AUGUSTA, ME., 179 CAPITOL AT WASHINGTON, 195 GROUND PLAN OF EXPOSITION HALL, CHICAGO, . 289 PRESIDENT CHESTER A. ARTHUR, 329 SENATOR GEORGE F. EDMUNDS, 329 SENATOR JOSEPH R. HAWLEY, 333 SENATOR JOHN SHERMAN, 337 GEN. WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN, 337 SECRETARY ROBERT T. LINCOLN, 341 SECRETARY WALTER Q. GRESHAM, 341 THE PRESIDENTS WASHINGTON TO HARRISON, . . 383 MOUNT VERNON, THE HOME OF WASHINGTON, . . 397 CARPENTER'S HALL, PHILADELPHIA, 401 INDEPENDENCE HALL, PHILADELPHIA, 401 HOUSE WHERE " THE DECLARATION " WAS WRITTEN, 407 MONTICELLO, THE HOME OF JEFFERSON, . . . . 4! I THE WHITE HOUSE, WASHINGTON, D. C., . . . . 449 EAST ROOM OF THE WHITE HOUSE, 449 THE PRESIDENTS TYLER TO GRANT, 469 15 1 6 ILLUSTRATIONS. LINCOLN'S BIRTHPLACE, ELIZABETHTOWN, KY., . . 477 LINCOLN'S RESIDENCE AT SPRINGFIELD, ILL., . . 477 BIRTHPLACE OF GEN. GRANT, 483 PHILADELPHIA'S WELCOME TO GRANT, . . . .491 RUTHERFORD B. HAYES, 495 JAMES A. GARFIELD 499 GARFIELD'S HOME AT MENTOR, O. 503 PORTRAITS OF GARFIELD'S CABINET, 509 HON. JOHN A. LOGAN (steel) 535 MRS. SENATOR JOHN A. LOGAN 547 "ON TO RICHMOND," 559 FORT DONELSON, 567 FORT HENRY, 567 BATTLEFIELD NEAR JACKSON, Miss., 579 VlF.W IN VlCKSBURG AFTER ITS FALL 579 DEATH OF GENERAL MCPHERSON BEFORE ATLANTA, 589 LIFE JAMES G. ELAINE CHAPTER I. ANCESTRY AND EARLY LIFE. LONG usage has established a custom that can- not be broken at this late day. In biographical writing the author must give dates and facts so elaborately and so accurately that no possibility of dispute can arise. A great man's birth, his early life, his struggles with wealth or poverty, his final triumph all must be laid open to the public. It is not always the poor who have their trials in early life. It was said ages ago that human existence was merely a world of compensations. What money can buy, the poor lad often needs ; but he often possesses traits of character, inde- pendent thought and stalwart energy that no money can pay for. As a general proposition it is as .hard to struggle against great wealth as against close poverty. A thoughtful observer of human life and human frailties will say that the carefully reared poor boy has the advantage in the life fight over the boy who can always have whatever money can buy. Necessity is the great teacher and the great example. It is harder for the rich boy to rise in honest endeavor than the poor boy, for with the poor boy it is necessity, 2 19 20 LIFE OF JAMKS <;. IH.AIM.. while with the rich boy it is a sort of amusement. To his mind his future is secure ; he knows he need not work for his living ; he feels no anxiety, and his future in ease and luxury is established beyond a question. And so we pass to the life of the candidate of the Republican party in the great election of 1884, and in his life is illustrated the principle suggested in the brief remarks above. James Gillespie Elaine, who was nominated by the Republican party assembled in convention at Chicago, June 3d, for President of the United States, was born on the 3ist of January, 1830. Good, solid Americans, the men who till the soil, who contribute to the material prosperity of the country in other walks of life, who add to the glory of our institutions and have made us re- spected as a nation, have very little regard for what is known as "blood." As a people, we are inclined to take a man as we find him. A noble- man may be found behind a homespun jacket, and a noble intellect may be covered by a rusty hat. On the other hand, broadcloth may cover a dis- honest heart, a silk hat may crown an empty head, and a great name may belong to one who has never done anything praiseworthy, and who is incapable of a noble aspiration. In Mr. Elaine is represented both a great and honorable ancestry, and the career of a boy of the people. He is proud of his ancestors, as he has reason to be, AN'CESTRY AND EARLY LIFE. 21 but at the same time he likes to dwell upon the different phases of the struggles which brought him to his present eminence. His ancestors, both on the side of his father and his mother, were of high and honorable standing. His mother's name was Gillespie, and her family was distinguished in Pennsylvania for many gene- rations, even ante-dating the Revolution. Neal Gillespie, Mr. Elaine's maternal grandfather, was a man of large property, and was honored, re- spected and liked by the people of the whole sur- rounding country. Mr. Elaine's father (Ephraim L. Elaine) was born and reared in Carlisle, Cum- berland county, a beautiful village nestling in one of the most picturesque valleys that the hand of nature ever glorified. The father, after an extended tour in Europe, South America and the West Indies, returned to spend the greater portion of his life in the beautiful county of Washington, where he died before his son was fully grown. He went to this section about iSiS, having the largest landed possessions of any man of his age in Western Pennsylvania, owning an estate which, had it been preserved, would have amounted to-day to many millions. As a single item in that estate, it may be interesting to mention that, in 1825, Mr. Elaine's father deeded to the Econom- ites the splendid tract of land on which their town, with all its improvements and all its wealth, now stands. The price was $25,000 for a property 1. 1 IT. MK JAMi:> G. IJI.AINK. whose value to-day, even if unimproved, would be a princely fortune. There were also timber tracts on the Allegheny and coal tracts on the Monon- gahela, at that day of no special value, which now represent large fortunes in the hands of those lucky enough to hold them. Very near the large tracts owned by his father and grandfather, Mr. Blaine is now the possessor of one of the most valuable coal properties in the Monongahela val- ley. In area it is but a fraction of that which he might have hoped to inherit, but in value it is much greater than the whole landed estate of his father fifty years ago. Mr. Blaine's paternal great-grandfather was a colonel in the Pennsylvania line in the Revolu- tionary war. He was the intimate friend of Gen- eral Washington, and was commissary general of the northern department of Washington's army. He was a man of large means, and from his own purse, and from contributions obtained from friends, he advanced large sums of money toward purchasing supplies for the army during that memorable winter at Valley Forge. Wash- ington himself attributed the preservation of his troops from absolute starvation to the heroic and self-sacrificing efforts of Colonel Blaine. The birth-place of the great Maine statesman was Indian Hill Farm, Washington County, Pa., opposite the little town of Brownsville, on the Monongahela river. The home in which he first ANCESTRY AND EARLY LIFE. 25 saw the light is still standing, though it is now in a hopeless state of decay. It is of stone, and was built by Mr. Elaine's great-grandfather before the Revolutionary war. It is said to have been the first stone house built on the west bank of the Monongahela river. There were no neighbors ; and on that dreary, bleak and stormy morning in January, fifty-four years ago, it was a struggle between life and death for him whose name is to-day in everybody's mouth. In all there were eight children five sons and three daughters born to the Blaine family ; but James, whose name is now so prominent, and who has been honored throughout the country for twenty years, is the only one who has achieved distinction. Mr. Blaine was very carefully educated. His whole family, both on his father's and his mother's side, had every advantage, and even in that early day they appreciated the value of what was then known as "schooling." At a considerable dis- c5 tance from the family homestead there was a little red school-house, and James began his education there. He was then but six years old. Whether he was bright or dull at this age cannot be dis- covered now. That he would be sometime Presi- dent of the United States was not contemplated, and so no more attention was paid to him than to any boy in school. The two teachers to whom he first recited as a barefooted boy are still living. One is Mary Ann Graves, who came from a 26 1-IIT. OF JA.MKS C. IH.AINE. Quaker family. She is now Mrs. Johnson, and is living near Canton, Ohio. The other is Mrs. Matilda Dorsey, who still remains at Brownsville. He learned what he could at this country school. During the vacations he played at work on the old farm, which contained about five hundred acres. Farming, however, was not his bent at that time, though in later life he learned to appre- ciate the glory of the country, and to love its mani- fold beauties. He gave his idle hours to boating and to horses. It was his delight to mount vicious colts that no one else would trust, and among the people in Washington County it is remembered that Jim. Elaine always conquered every colt he mounted. He had many ugly falls, and some broken limbs, but he never gave up a horse that he intended to "break." Mr. Elaine's family was not what may be called poor in his young days, and he never lacked the necessaries of life, but he never had in his youth the unlimited means which the rich man's sons enjoy to-day. In this connection an extract from his matchless oration on Garfield, delivered in the capital, at Washington, in the presence of the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the principal officers of Government, may not be in- appropriate, as, in a measure, his own experience is therein portrayed. There were present on that occasion, besides the members of both Houses of Congress, the President of the United States and ANCESTRY AND EARLY LIFE. 27 his cabinet, the foreign ministers resident in Washington, the judges of the highest courts, and distinguished men in nearly every walk in life. Speaking of Garfield's poverty, Mr. Elaine then said : " No manly man feels anything of shame in looking back to early struggles with adverse circumstances, and no man feels a worthier pride than when he has conquered the obstacles to his progress. But no one of noble mould desires to be looked upon as having occupied a menial position, as having been repressed by a feeling of inferiority, or as having suffered the evils of poverty until relief was found at the hand of charity. General Garfield's youth presented no hardships which family love and family energy did not overcome, subjected him to no privations which he did not cheerfully accept, and left no memories save those which were recalled with delight, and transmitted with profit and with pride." In the same oration Mr. Elaine used the follow- ing happy illustrations : " His father dying before he was two years old, Garfield's early life was one of privation, but its poverty has been made indelicately and unjustly prominent. Thousands of readers have imagined him as the ragged, starving child, whose reality too often greets the eye in the squalid sections of our large cities. General Garfield's infancy and youth had none of this destitution, none of these 28 LIFE OF JAMES G. BLAIXI-. pitiful features appealing to the tender heart, and to the open hand of charity. He was a poor boy in the same sense in which Henry Clay was a poor boy ; in which Andrew Jackson was a poor boy ; in which Daniel Webster was a poor boy ; in the sense in which a large majority of the eminent men of America in all generations have been poor boys. Before a great multitude, in a public speech, Mr. Webster bore this testimony : ' It did not happen to me to be born in a log cabin, but my elder brothers and sisters were born in a log cabin raised amid the snow-drifts of New Hampshire, at a period so early that when the smoke rose first from its rude chimney, and curled over the frozen hills, there was no similar evidence of a white man's habitation between it and the settlements on the rivers of Canada. Its remains still exist. I make to it an annual visit. I carry my children to it to teach them the hardships endured by the generations which have gone before them. I love to dwell on the tender recol- lections, the kindred ties, the early affections, and the touching narratives and incidents which mingle with all I know of this primitive family abode.' ' At the age of eleven, young Elaine was sent to school at Lancaster, Ohio, where he lived in the family of his relative, Thomas Ewing, then Secre- tary of the Treasury. At this time he was well advanced in his studies. His father was a well- educated man, and had taken much interest in ANCESTRY AND EARLY LIFE. 29 his son's studies, and his grandfather, Neal Gil- lespie, a very able and accomplished scholar, never lost sight of the young man's educational training. Young Elaine was drilled in all English studies by his grandfather, and from him he no doubt got his taste for history, which was so early developed, and the cultivation of. which he has retained and practiced to the present time. At nine years of age he recited to his grandfather Plutarch's Lives, and it is said that at that early age the young student knew Plutarch almost by heart. When he was a little more than thirteen years of age he was sent to Washington, Pa., to what was then known as Washington College. He was large for his age, and was physically angular ; but his earnest face and his determination to know whatever belonged to his new position, gave him a prominent place at once among his school- fellows. He was a hard student, and it was not long before ? he was accorded the first place in scholarship, and was the acknowledged leader in everything that related to his class. Because he was not always "moping" and star-gazing when away from his studies, many thought he did little in the way of study. He was always first in every- thing, from the time he entered college until his graduation. He excelled especially in literature and mathematics. A college mate of Mr. Elaine's, who was sub- sequently a distinguished officer in the Confeder- 3O LITE OF JAMES G. BLAINK. ate army, gives some interesting particulars of the college life of the now prominent- statesman. These points, though not wholly agreeing with some here recorded, are given as throwing light on those early days. "At the college," says this biographer, "with two or three hundred students from all sections of the country, Elaine was from his first entrance a leader. Endowed with a splendid physique, he was foremost in all athletic sports. He is not remembered as a hard student among his classmates, as one who burned the mid- night oil. It was not necessary for him to do this, as he learned everything quickly and easily, and his standing in his classes was always among the very first. In the annual commencements and the frequent contests of the rival literary societies of the college, he was never conspicuous as a de- bater or wrangler, but he was known and acknow- ledged as the power that managed and controlled all these things. Goethe has said* 'One builds his talents in the stillnesses and builds his char- acter in the storms of the world.' "To the new boys and young freshmen Elaine was always a hero. To them he was uniformly kind, ever ready to assist and advise them, and to make smooth and pleasant their initiation into college life. His handsome person and neat attire; his ready sympathy and prompt assistance; his -frank, generous nature, and his brave, manly bearing, made him the best-known, the best-loved ANCESTRY AND EARLY LIFE. 31 and the most popular boy at college. He was the arbiter among younger boys in all their dis- putes, and the authority with those of his own age on all questions. He was always for the 'under dog in the fight.' Like most college boys, he had his sobriquet. Owing to the fact that he was possessed of a somewhat prominent, though shapely, proboscis, he received the appellation of 'Nosey Elaine,' which clung to him through his entire college life. His was one of those noses that would have been the pride and admiration of Napoleon I, and would doubtless . have ranked high and gained great glory among the other prominent noses, whose owners were selected by Napoleon to form the shining ranks of his favorite generals, as a prominent nose was considered by him a certain indication of genius and courage. After the usual term at college he graduated with distinguished honor, and carried with him into the world the enduring affection of all those who knew him and with whom he was associated in his alma mater." ,Mr. Blaine graduated when a little over seven- teen years of age. His class numbered thirty- three. In speaking of his college days, Mr. Blaine says that he was obliged to study hard, and that he was very quiet and an industrious student. His class was composed of young men who were determined to succeed, and the emula- tion was great, though friendly. The students 32 1. 1 IK OF JAMES C. I'.I.AIXK. did not strive to see how little they could do, but their determination was to excel in everything". So Mr. Blaine's college days were not holidays, as has been said. He was one of three who took the honors. He was selected to deliver the English salutatory and also an oration. The sub- ject of the latter was " The Duty of an Educated American." The oration of nearly forty years ago, viewed in the light of to-day, is rather remarkable far a boy of seventeen. It is to be regretted that the consent of the distinguished orator cannot be obtained to the publication of the whole address. The prediction in regard to the Pacific slope, that magnificent continent in itself, was prophetic, and is here given : "The sphere of labor for the educated American is continually enlarging. But recently we added the vast domain of the Lone Star Republic to our glorious union. The war to which that act gave rise, is now in victorious progress, and will not end without another great accession of territory possibly carrying our flag beyond the Great American Desert to the shores of the Pacific sea. Where our armies march population follows, and the field of duty for the scholar is to be conti- nental in extent, and as varied as the demands of a progressive civilization." We have only to bear in mind the fact that this address was delivered in September, 1847, tne very year that gold was discovered in California. Ill I G|yl IS r* T^L nr- 1 =i=g- mill mm mil if ANCESTRY AND EARLY LIFE. 35 Those then members of the faculty of Wash- ington College are all dead, but nearly all of Mr. Elaine's school fellows are still alive. At the quarter-centennial of the class, held in 1872, twenty-nine of the thirty-three were living, and every one of them was a man of position and character in his community. While. Mr. Blainc was in the House of Representatives there were two of his classmates also members, John V. Le Moyne, of Illinois, and William S. Moore, of Pennsylvania, who represented the old Washing- ton County District. At the same time, James H. Hopkins, of Pittsburg, Pa., and George W. Morgan, of Ohio, both Washington College stu- dents, were also members of the House. From this point in life Mr. Elaine began to carve out his own future. In those days the young college graduate did not loaf about home, a village beau, smoking cigarettes and devoting most of his time to his hair at least Elaine did not. He struck out at once to seek his fortune. It was a very lucky strike for him, for if he had not struck out as he did, and had not gone to Ken- tucky, and had not located near Millersburg, he might never have met Miss Harriet Stanwood, a woman who will " do him good, and not evil, all the days of his life," Mr. Elaine, after he left college, went to Blue Lick Springs, Kentucky, and became one of the professors in the Western Military Institute. In OF JAMES C,. BLAIXE. this school there were about 450 boys. A gentle- man now living in Washington (who was also, by the way, an officer in the Confederate service) was a student in the school. He well remembers Elaine, and describes him as a thin, handsome, earnest young man, with the same fascinating manners he has now. He was very popular with the boys, who trusted him and made friends with him from the first. He knew the given names of every one, and he -knew their shortcomings and their strong points, and to this day he asks about this boy and that who went to school at Blue Lick Springs, then a very popular watering-place. It was at Millersburg, twenty miles distant, that Mr. Elaine .first met Miss Stanwood, who belonged to one of the great families of Maine, and she afterwards became his wife. Elaine, after an experience of a year or fwo, discovered that he was not born to be a school teacher, and he returned to Pennsylvania, where he taught and studied law. In Philadelphia an interesting memorial of his vocation as teacher is preserved in the form of a manuscript history of the Institution for the Instruction of the Blind, in which Mr. Elaine taught for two years. It is written throughout in a neat, angular hand, free from blots and erasures, and complete from the founding of the school to the day on which the writer resigned. Dr. Chapin, the president, bears high testimony to ANCESTRY AND EARLY LIFE. 37 the young professor's capacity and fidelity, and indicates that his strong, positive nature, argu- mentative turn and taste for research were already manifest. In 1853 he removed to Maine, and located at Augusta, the birth-place of his wife. On arriving here, Mr. Elaine purchased a half interest in the Kennebec Journal, and that natural bent of his mind for the career of journalism which had before been displayed only in occasional articles, showed its full force. It led him thenceforward to discard the profession of teaching, upon which he had entered with such promise in Philadelphia and Kentucky, and also the practice of law, in which he was also assured of success. Mr. Elaine's preparation for his new work on the Journal was in every way characteristic. He took down the files, or bound volumes of the paper for past years, and plunged into an earnest study of their contents, in which he persevered until he had thoroughly mastered not merely the tone and position of the paper (which was the official organ at first of the Whig and then of the Republican party), but also the minutiae of poli- tics and public affairs in every county in the State. Only his prodigious memory, which is a quality that cannot be overstated in depicting him, his intuitive grasp of facts, and his keen comprehension, enabled him fully to accomplish this feat ; but it also serves to illustrate afresh in 38 LIFE OF JAMES G. ELAINE. his case the old quotation, "genius is only an infinite capacity for hard work." Thus equipped, he threw himself into the midst of his new duties with his usual energy. The Journal was made a thoroughly live and aggres- sive paper, but no one could deny that it was at the same time eminently just both in praise and blame. By its vigor and fearlessness, combined with its young editor's rare insight into men and affairs, it became a power in the State, and Mr. Elaine's reputation spread into adjoining commonwealths as that of a man rapidly rising into prominence. The substantial success of the paper was also very marked under his management, and it was never more pros- perous. During the four years that Mr. Elaine spent in this active and exciting conduct of a leading polit- ical journal, he still found time, with his habits of rapid work, for keeping up his studies of history and general literature, studies which his powers of mind made very fruitful. He has a command of both these subjects, fresh and unobscured in his mind, and ready to be put into instant use, which makes him remarkable among his compeers in political life. In 1858, Mr. Elaine was elected to the Legisla- ture, and also made Chairman of the Republican State Committee, honors to which his powers as a political organizer and leader already fully enti- ANCESTRY AND EARLY LIFE. 39 tied him. He remained Chairman by successive elections for many years. On relinquishing the conduct of the Kennebec Journal, he was beset with offers on every side, by those who appreciated his talents and wished to gain the aid of them. He finally accepted the editorship of the Portland Advertiser \ though still continuing his residence at Augusta. About this time, he made his first essay in a production more permanent than the day-to-day writing of journalism, and like his first manu- script and recent volume, it was historical in char- acter, being a life of Hon. Luther Severance, who had established the Kennebec Journal nearly thirty years before. In a pamphlet of forty pages the biographer set forth with his unfailing literary skill the main facts in the interesting career of this widely-known and very popular New England journalist, who was also minister to the Hawaiian Kingdom under President Taylor in 1850. The work was received with great favor. CHAPTER II. POLITICAL AND OFFICIAL CAREER. GREAT men are sometimes beholden to occasion for the development of their qualities. Mr. Blaine had attained prominence in his adopted State, not only as a writer and journalist, but also as a political manager, before his capacity for public speaking was suspected, perhaps even by himself. It was known, of course, that in addition to his command of the pen, he was fluent and effective in private conference, could express his views clearly and carry his point in an argument, but he had rather an aversion to the platform, or, at all events, a diffidence that kept him from appearing there. In 1856 he was a delegate to the memor- able Convention at Philadelphia which nominated Fremont. On his return to Augusta, at a mass meeting held to ratify the choice, some of the old citizens contrived to get him upon the stand and put him forward simply to tell the story of the Convention, in response to a general request. The congenial task soon warmed him to his work ; he found confidence and words together, and the maiden speech of his public career was a pro- nounced success. From this time on there was no 40 POLITICAL AND OFFICIAL CAREER. 41 thought of confining his labors to the sanctum or the council-chamber. He made speeches in nearly every part of the State, and was heartily greeted as a solid and convjncing " stump " orator, acquitting himself in this undertaking, as in all the others that have fallen to his lot, in a manner easily the first among all competitors. His aid was eagerly enlisted in subsequent campaigns, but it may be remarked that this never led him to make his oratory a matter of price. His efforts were given freely and spontaneously, for the good of the cause, and he would not accept pay or allow a charge to be made for hearing him. The first public office held by Mr. Elaine came to him in an exceptional way. In making the newspaper under his control thoroughly alive and useful, he had occasion to criticise the penal and reformatory institutions in Maine, and expose their lax and inefficient management, under an antiquated system which needed reform. As he never spoke without entire command of the facts and justice upon his side, this well-sustained attack compelled attention by the authorities of the State, arousing, as it did, enlightened public opinion to some degree of excitement. The late Lot M. Morrill, who was then Governor, took an adroit, and, as it turned out, very beneficial method of silencing the damaging fire of criticism. As if to say, "You seem to know more of this than we do," he threw the responsibility upon the young 42 I.IKE OF JAMES G. BLAIM-. editor himself, by appointing him a Commissioner to examine the prisons and reformatories of Maine and other States, and suggest what improvements were needed in the former. Mr. Elaine accepted the important trust, and entered upon it in a manner worthy of himself. He traveled through fifteen of the commonwealths of the Union, closely observing their methods of dealing with the vicious, and made an elaborate report, embracing many recommendations founded upon his keen, practical judgment. These were largely adopted and enforced. As a result, the institutions he had denounced were put upon a sound and paying basis, upon which they have ever since remained. It was in 1858 that Mr. Elaine was sent to the Legislature, where he was to pass a four years' apprenticeship in the science of legislation in the stirring period just before and including the out- break of the war. After service on important committees, he was twice elected Speaker of the lower House. Even at this comparatively early age, a little more than completing his third decade, he showed his genius for Parliamentary law and procedure, and his tact in the management of a deliberative assembly. Fortunate, indeed, must have been the legislature which enjoyed the ser- vices of James G. Elaine as presiding officer. The fame of his short career in this capacity is still affectionately preserved in the State, and spoken of as a standard of comparison which his POLITICAL AND OFFICIAL CAREER. 43 successors may hope to approach but not to equal. It came quite naturally that in 1862 he should emerge into the wider field of the Federal Con- gress. The full gravity of "storm and stress " epoch of the great Rebellion began to be fully appreciated, and the States were sending up their strongest men to the National Councils to grap- ple with the problems of armament, defense, the sustaining of the nation's credit and the other o emergencies of vast and unexpected civil war. General Garfield was recalled from the glorious front of battle, sorely against his will, to bear a more arduous duty in meeting the secret foes of the Union in the halls of the Capitol. Thaddeus Stevens, John A. Bingham, Boutwell, Conkling, Julian, Hayes, and others who were afterwards to play more noted, but sometimes less noble parts, then mostly in the first flush of their strength and manhood, and united by generous enthusiasm in one great cause, were there. The election of Mr. Elaine could not be otherwise than gratifying to his friend, President Lincoln, who leaned upon him almost implicitly, in regard to the political movement and sentiments in the far Northern Pine-Tree State, which was furnishing, without stint, her means and the strength of her stalwart sons by land and sea to the defense of the Union. During his first year in Congress and part of 44 LIFE OK JAMMS G. DLAINK. the second, Mr. Blaine devoted himself entirely to close observation of the occurrences which passed before him. The casual spectator would have seen at his desk only a young man of some- what notable appearance, his dark hair and beard still unsnowed by time and care, with hawk-like glance following every detail of the public busi- ness, and in other respects, simply loyal to the lead of the eminent men on his side of the House, who soon came to know and rely upon him, if they had not previously done so. About this time ensued an episode which may be mentioned not for its intrinsic importance, but because malicious tongues have dwelt upon it, and because there is nothing which needs to be covered up or slurred over in the life of the Republican candidate. Congress passed a con- scription law, for which Mr. Blaine voted, and in which there was singularly enough, no exemption of Senators and Representatives from the draft. His name went into the box with the rest in his district, and was one of the first to be drawn. What was he to do ? The brilliant orator and statesman, whose organizing powers were so much needed in the civil contests at home, would have been sadly and absurdly lost to the cause, tramp- ing through the far South with a musket over his shoulder. If he used his influence to secure a commission, as he might easily have done, a raw and inexperienced officer would have displaced POLITICAL AND OFFICIAL CAREER. 45 some one better fitted for military command. Mr. Elaine's abundant courage needed no proof then or at any time afterward. Instead of pleading any exemption, he saw that a recruit was secured with his own means to fill the place in the quota of Maine, and continued the legislative work to which his country had given him a prior call. When re-elected to the Thirty-ninth Congress, Mr. Elaine laid aside by degrees his role of reserve and observation, and moved up to the position to which his wonderful gifts entitled him. He was still a young man, but with sagacity and indeed experience far beyond most of his elders in years. He, as before said, was the trusted friend of the President, in whose second candi- dacy and election, as in his first, he materially aided. The gradual withdrawal of the elder men, either by death or by promotion to the Senate, gave the young blood in the House a chance to assert itself without ungraciousness, and it was by normal growth, and not by usurpation or audac- ity, that Mr. Elaine found himself before the end of his third term regarded as the leader of the majority. When the Forty-first Congress met, the choice fell upon him, by common consent, for the important post of the Speakership, and he advanced to the place to which nearly all his pre- paration had tended, The fame of his six years' service in this exalted station is the world's property. It was not a chair 46 LIKE OV JAMKS C. 15LAINE. of roses, or at least the roses were thickly set with thorns. It is a fierce light which beats upon the Speaker's dais, and Mr. Elaine was too fearless and positive a man not to meet all the responsi- bilities of his post to the utmost. He held the balance with a firm hand between his own party, accustomed to power since the war and impatient of check, and a growing and turbulent minority, led by able men, and reckless in both legiti- mate and illegitimate opposition. One day the Speaker would be assailed by that lawless guerilla, "Ben." Butler, then posing as a Radical of the Radicals ; the next day, or for a number of days, the Democrats would be "filibustering" by tactics of delay against some measure obnoxious to them, under the leadership of Mr. Randall, Mr. Cox and others, masters of all the arts of irritation and bedevilment, of an adversary. Mr. Elaine's sheer endurance in this as in many other crises was something to attract admir- ation and surprise. He always appeared in the Speaker's chair fresh, alert and even smiling ; his voice never broke, nor did his hand falter, with all the strain to which he was subjected ; and after remaining in his place for hours and hours, until the members upon the floor, though relieving each other often, and using all possible means to keep up strength, were hoarse and exhausted with fatigue, he would stroll home with his usual interest in the sights and sounds POLITICAL AND OFFICIAL CAREER. 47 around him, take some very light refreshment, and proceed to make up his arrears of sleep. It may here be recorded, that during Mr. Elaine's whole service of six years as Speaker, he was never absent a day from his post. The same trait was afterward visible in the extraordinary forty-eight hours' session in which the Senate, regardless of its usual steady habits and the age of many of its members, once indulged during his term there. He stayed the proceedings through, and after this long vigil, when his brother Senators emerged broken down either by their arduous efforts in debate or other causes, he moved off with almost boyish lightness, conversing interestedly with friends. This endurance is not merely the gift of nature, the result of his grand physique. Mr. Elaine has considered it a part of his duty in pub- lic life to keep himself up to the maximum of effi- ciency, to offer to his constituents and the country only the efforts of a sound mind in a sound body. With this object he has not merely refrained from damaging excess, which indeed would be repellent to him, but he attends to those details of hygiene and exercise, which great men are prone to con- sider beneath them, training himself, as it were, like an athlete to run the race or bear the bur- dens imposed upon him. It may be noticed, in studying his career, that he has probably lost less 48 LIFE OF JAMKS <;. DI.AINK. time by sickness or debility than any public man that can be mentioned. His temperance may be referred to in the same connection. He never took a drink of the so- called " hard liquors," whisky, brandy, or other spirits in his life, and probably does not know the taste of them. He is unaffectedly simple in his habits, in food as in dress, and, without making a parade of rule and system, works, sleeps and recreates, when not interrupted by some demand that'it would be wrong to neglect, with the regu- larity of a day-laborer or a monk. This may not wholly please those who think that great powers should always be accompanied with a kind of wild license or excess, and that a man of affairs should be exempted from all the restraints of common and well-ordered lives ; but sensible people will not be apt to think less of Mr. Elaine on account of these habits. He displayed, of course, qualities higher than endurance in the Speaker's chair. His wisdom and honesty in keeping clear of the temporary madness of the "salary grab bill," when so many reputable men seemed to be thrown off their bal- ance by the prospect of a few thousand dollars back pay more than that to which they were enti- tled, may be cited as an instance. It will be remembered that on the ist of March, 1873, tne bill was before the House increasing the salary of the President to $50,000, the Justices of the POLITICAL AND OFFICIAL CAREER. 49 Supreme Court, Vice President, Speaker and members of the Cabinet to $10,000 ; and mem- bers of Congress to $6,500, with the proviso that the increase should begin with the other officers on the 4th of March, 1873, but with Senators and Representatives from the beginning of the existing Congress. Mr. Elaine readily detected the bearing of the measure. He called the atten- tion of the House to the fact that upon the last previous increase of salaries, that of the Speaker was adjusted on the same plan as that of the Vice President and members of the Cabinet. He thought that adjustment should not be disturbed, and he therefore asked unanimous consent to insert the word "hereafter" in reference to the Speaker's pay. Mr. Randall objected, and Mr. S. S. Cox remarked, " That saves the reputation of the House." Mr. Elaine was of no mind to shoulder any part of the odium he saw the House was incurring. He earnestly appealed to Mr. Randall to withdraw the objection, and, as it was scarcely courteous to thrust upon an officer money which he insisted on declining, Mr. Randall consented. The Speaker promptly interlined the saving word. Awaking to the virtual repudiation thus made of the House's action, Mr. Farnsworth hastily interposed another objection, but too late. The Speaker ruled him out of order, and, having thus cut himself clear 5O LIKE OF JA.MKS G. HI. AIM:. of it without showing any open disrespect to the House or his party associates, put the bill to a vote. The effect which its adoption produced upon public opinion need not be here detailed. CHAPTER III. PERSONAL TRAITS AND CHARACTERISTICS. THIS seems an appropriate place to speak of some of those elements of character which have given Mr. Elaine a general popularity very rare in the case of one so aggressive and so devoted to principle. One of these traits for which he has not been generally credited, though one of the most attrac- tive, is his keen humor. It would be strange if a man of such wide and varied gifts lacked this one in his make-up, but Mr. Elaine has always kept his nimble wit in such subjection to his more solid qualities that he has wholly escaped the dangerous reputation of the jester, and in public life only the lambent play of a sarcasm, as fleet as lightning, gives token of an almost steady illumi- nation that is reserved for the amenities of private life. Intimacy with Mr. Elaine would well repay a Boswell or a gleaner of table-talk, but his pub- lished speeches and debates would have to be carefully searched for the quick flashes of merri- ment which discomfited a troublesome adversary, or established the orator's position triumphantly, 51 52 I UK OF JA.MKS G. BLAINK. and then they would suffer by being detached from the context and the occasion. Mr. Blaine's characteristic readiness and decision of speech are well exhibited in all of them. He has a fund of quaint anecdotes, almost equal to that of President Lincoln himself, which he can tell with inimitable effect, or use briefly to clinch an argument or illustrate a point. In a debate with Senator Thurman over the troublesome question of the debt of the Pacific Railroads, Mr. Blaine remarked: ''The Senator says that if they would agree to pay $i 0,000, ooo a year he would not make a conclusive bargain as respects the debt. It does seem to me, with entire respect for the Senator, that he has seemed to place himself in the position of the man in the story who was so contrary that he would not allow himself to do as he had a mind to." And further on he drew the additional parallel : "If we let go this company on their simply paying their honest debts, we will be as bad as the young man in London who succeeded to his father's chancery practice, and when the father asked the son about the famous case of Smith vs. Jones, the son said, 'I settled that yesterday amicably and fairly to both parties.' ' Oh ! you young blockhead,' said he, 'I have lived on that suit for the last twenty years.' ' His command of general literature is equally complete. In one of the lively verbal duels with PERSONAL TRAITS AND CHARACTERISTICS. 53 which he disturbed the dullness of the Senate, he remarked to Mr. Eaton, of Connecticut : " I have read a great deal from the Senator this morning, and I will read more before I get through." MR. EATON. Perhaps that will be the best part of your speech, except what you read from Webster. MR. ELAINE. I am obliged to the Senator for the exception. It is equal to Dogberry's injunction, "Put God first." The same debate (in May, 1879) was marked by his great oratorical conflict with the late Senator Hill, of Georgia, which with the substitution of more rapid modern methods for the stately for- mality of old times, may be compared to the test of strength between Webster and Hayne. Pass- ing over for a moment the more serious passages, it will be remembered that Senator Hill had written to the voters of Troup county when elected to the Secession Convention, " I will consent to the dissolution of the Union as I would consent to the death of my father, never from choice, only from necessity, and then in sorrow and sadness of heart." Mr. Elaine read the ordinance of secession adopted by the Convention, and then continued, amidst the uncontrollable laughter of even those who were hit hardest: "That was the ordinance which the Senator from 54 LIFE OF JAMES G. BLAINK. Georgia said to the people of Troup he would consent to as he would to the death of his father, and the ordinance which the evening after it was passed so filled his heart with sadness that he put out the lights in his room and would not make a speech to a crowd outside serenading him. I have read the yeas and nays on that, and what is my un- bounded surprise to find that the Senator from Georgia himself voted for the ordinance. Here he is, ' Hill, of Troup.' On the call of the yeas and nays there were 208 in favor of the ordinance of secession and 89 against it, and in the 89 were Alexander H. Stephens and Herschel V. Johnson, who had that very year run for Vice-President on the Douglass ticket. The Senator from Georgia [Mr. Hill], who would consent to it just as he would the death of his father, made up his mind that if two hundred and eight men wanted to murder the old man he would join with them. [Great laughter and applause.] Rather than be in a minority he would join the murderous crowd [laughter], and be a parricide." Immediately afterward occurred a tart personal passage, which further proved Mr. Blaine's perfect coolness and readiness, and is also important as being his own account of an event which is some- times unfairly used to his discredit, although any public man had a perfect right, at the time referred to, to decide for himself, and upon the advice of trusted friends (as did General Garfield), whether PERSONAL TRAITS AND CHARACTERISTICS. 55 his services were most needed in the field or in the forum. Soldiers were many ; experienced and trustworthy statesmen and legislators were few, and it is no possible reflection upon Mr. Elaine's courage that he followed the duty which seemed nearest to hand, and waived the military glory won by many far less worthy. In a tone of good-humored raillery he remarked that the Senators on the other side of the Chamber were "dragged into secession " because " their States went, and the honorable Senator from Kentucky [Mr. Williams] was dragged into it because his State did not go." " I did not hire a substitute," was Mr. Williams' courteous retort, and the report continues thus : MR. ELAINE. He says he did not hire a substitute. That is a piece of wit which I am glad to notice. The Senators from Kentucky have twice, both of them, taken a turn when I was on the floor to say they did not hire a substitute, as if that was something very pungent. In the conscription law, passed by a Congress of which I was a member, for the first time in the history of the Gov- ernment there was no exemption of Senators or Repre- sentatives from the draft. I was a younger man then than I am now, and among the very first men drafted in my district I was one. I did not resign my seat in Con- gress. I did send a substitute. What would the honora- ble Senator have done ? MR. WILLIAMS. I should have gone. MR. ELAINE. You would have gone ? MR. WILLIAMS. I would have gone to the fight. MR. ELAINE. I am glad you would have gone in 4 56 LIFE OF JAMES G. BLAINK. any way on the Union side. But the Senator was not drafted, and he went and fought against the Government, even when his State did not secede. I consider this ref- erence to a substitute as a first-class sarcasm ; and as the Senators from Kentucky have each tried their hands on it only twice, I hope they will repeat it again. MR. WILLIAMS. When my country calls for my services in the army, I am ready. MR. ELAINE. I am not disputing it. I only say the honorable Senator went into the rebellion because his State did not go. MR. WILLIAMS. I should like to ask the Senator did his substitute fight? MR. ELAINE. No. I found out afterward that he was a Democrat. [Laughter.] I was inveigled into hiring him without knowing who he was. MR. EATON. Did he sell himself for half price? MR. ELAINE. I do not know. I paid full price for him, more than an average Democrat was worth in the war. [Great laughter.] Passing to more elevated traits, Mr. Elaine's undoubted courage in his convictions requires a a word of praise. It is this which makes his career and his place in the affections of so many the more remarkable. He is no trimmer. No one is in doubt where to find him on many of the questions of the day. After experience with the wavering, non-committal and uncertain politicians, it is refreshing to find one public man who speaks his mind freely and unmistakably, and adheres to what he has said. Mr. Elaine's views on com- PERSONAL TRAITS AND CHARACTERISTICS. 57 merce, the tariff, finance and the other questions before the public are as familiar as his own world- famous name. He does not deal in vague gene- ralities, or refrain from action on any subject of importance because his interests may conflict with his duty. It is evident that this quality is appre- ciated by his countrymen. They prefer a leader who expresses all his intentions, even though they may not perfectly coincide with all of them, over one who would keep his supporters in the dark as to his real purposes and ideas as long and as largely as possible. A special display of this unfailing courage, the need and utility of which was perhaps not fully understood by all at the time it- occurred, was given by Mr. Elaine in the House of Representa- tives, and afterward in the Senate, during the years that followed the ascendency of the Demo- crats throughout the South, and consequently in the lower branch of Congress. Some of his op- ponents have criticised his tactics while leader of the Republican minority, and afterward Senator from Maine, as uselessly irritating a "waving of the bloody shirt," a revival of war issues, and so on. Even his supporters may have wondered why there should be so much debate about Ander- sonville, Jeff. Davis and the solid South. But Mr. Elaine had a purpose. A Democratic major- ity saw itself almost in reach of the control of the White House and the Capitol for the first time 58 LIFE OF JAMES G. ELAINE. since the war. It was largely the old majority that had obtained before the war, unchanged and unrepentant. It expected once more to dominate the North by means of an intimidated negro vote, as it had before done by the slave-holders' vote. It was therefore imperative that some one should meet this pretension from the very start, and teach the ex-confederates that the day of Northern doughfaces had forever passed. Mr. Elaine fear- lessly took up the gage, and for three or four years bore the brunt of the verbal battle which raged backward and forward, and which incident- ally tore the masks from the faces of all secret sympathizers with rebellion or slavery, chastened their pride, and largely contributed to awake the North to the danger of this new kind of "slave- ocracy" maintained by "bulldozing." Mr. Elaine was also fully up with the current topics of the time. He exposed, with inimitable satire, the pre- tence that the South was suffering from "bayonets at the polls," when there were, as he showed, only eleven hundred and fifty-five Federal soldiers in the whole region, less than one for each county, or one for each seven hundred square miles. He denounced the violent course of refusing appro- priations for the whole army unless the election laws were repealed. He showed, with his usual clearness and masterly presentation of figures, that the white voters of the South really returned twice as many representatives in proportion to PERSONAL TRAITS AND CHARACTERISTICS. 59 their own number as the white voters of the North did, and that thus alone the Democratic majority was obtained in Congress. The necessity for this painful struggle has passed away; but it had to come at the time it did, and Mr. Blaine was there to meet it. The South is now sending up a new class of men, intent more upon the future than the past, and the real progress of that section has no more earnest friend and helper than Mr. Blaine. Above all, but most indescribable, is Mr. Elaine's gracious and winning personality, which captivates even those who would be his enemies. He was afterward on friendly terms with those to whom he dealt the keenest blows in the hot debates of 187679. The wounds then inflicted did not rankle, for Mr. Blaine was scrupulous in confining himself only to the public acts and records, of his adversaries, and was always within parliamentary courtesies. There are contrasts in Mr. Blaine which might not be suspected by those with a merely surface knowledge of his character, but which are essen- tial to a study of the man. Thus he produces upon many the impression of being entirely off- hand and dashing in his methods, one whom it would be almost impossible to tie down to the drudgery of exact observation and the collation of facts. Even his friends are apt to imagine that his triumphs are due to flashes of intuition, and that it is recklessness ancj luck which carry 00 LIFE OF JAMES G. BLAINE. him through so many difficult positions without loss of prestige or the perpetration of damaging blunders. In reality there are few, even among the patient plodders or professed book-worms, so careful and thorough in preparation as he. Though this work is generally done by him with the same rapidity and energy as his more public efforts, it is unsparing in its intensity while it lasts, as may be judged from the results. Who, during his long career in Congress, has caught him erring or mis- representing in his statements about men and events ? Almost every word of his has been closely scanned by hostile eyes, anxious to detect and publish any flaw ; he has had occasion to make assertions sure to provoke controversy and attempted denial. Yet in the few instances when adversaries have ventured to take issue with him, he has been so well possessed not merely of the truth, but of the proofs of it, that, while never pretending to superhuman infallibility, he has been able to overthrow them completely on all substantial points involved. The same observations apply to his literary tasks. Those near him during the preparation of "Twenty Years of Congress," can testify that he was as keen in the hunt for even the smallest fact which was to have place in the narrative, as if the success of the whole turned upon it. Time and again men of less conscientious thoroughness PERSONAL TRAITS AND CHARACTERISTICS. 6 1 would have been tempted to discard some obscure detail as not worth clearing- up, or to state it with a guess at the truth ; but not so Mr. Elaine. If the missing fact was to be run to earth anywhere within the limits of the Government archives or the memory of the living he would not let it escape him. The first volume, covering a period of intense feeling and much dispute, has been before the public for months. Not one of its critics has thought of impugning its accuracy. His great services to the Republican party in Maine spoke of the same characteristic. For twenty years he was chairman of the Republican State Committee, and "organized victory" in a succession of notable campaigns. It was only during the latter part of the time that he emerged as the eloquent, "magnetic" leader; he was never a " Boss " in the sense of those who have dominated politics in some* States and cities. His success was due to hard, unremitting work in the committee-rooms, and in canvassing every county. It is said that he had full lists of the electors, with their probable standing indicated, before each campaign, and that he could therefore predict, with almost absolute accuracy, the results of the voting. There is a lesson in all this which would make it useful to repeat, even were it not needed to correct a misapprehension about Mr. Elaine's methods. There are men of less acquirements 62 LIFE OF JAMES G. BLAINE. who would find it well to imitate his patient toil in the seclusion of the study, before essaying showy feats in public life. Another contrast is that between his hearty, free and open manner at all times when it is proper to unbend, familiar with friends, winning to strangers, disarming even to enemies, and the dignity which no man assumes with more grace in ceremonials of state, or when required to repel impertinence. It is safe to say that the boldest of his intimates never felt tempted to presume upon his acquaintance with Mr. Elaine. Without any oppressive stateliness, there is about him an im- pression of solid worth and power that somehow silences the rude jest, checks too close approach and inspires respect. In private, he is the most unaf- fected of men, cheerful, companionable, and one with those about him ; in public, his bearing is always fitted to the duty he has to perform and the station which he may fill. It is certain that nothing could be more distaste- ful to Mr. Elaine than the idea of dragging private religious belief, as an argument pro or con, into {he heated discussion of a political campaign. He" would oppose the use of any reference to religion jto bring voters to his standard, and he has ever refrained from appealing to any sectarian preju- dice against an adversary, But, as it is said else- where, there is nothing in his politics, religion or daily life, the Republican candidate desires to con- PERSONAL TRAITS AND CHARACTERISTICS. 63 ceal, or which needs to be explained away. The facts of Mr. Elaine's history on the religious side are largely a matter of record, and they may be simply stated thus : As the daughter of an old and respected Roman Catholic family, his mother was naturally a sincere and life-long member of that body, and honored it by her life as a devout Christian woman. Her son has said, in a letter often republished, that nothing would induce him to utter a word against his mother's faith, and he will never permit him- self to be drawn into one of those religious con- troversies which generally do so little good and so much harm. Following the liberty of conscience which pre- vails in this favored land, Mr. Elaine followed in the footsteps of his Protestant ancestors, and has been for nearly twenty-eight years a member of the Congregational Church, having been confirmed in the city of Augusta, in the edifice where the some rite has since been performed for all his six children. He has given liberally of his means for church purposes, as the records of the congrega- tions both of Washington and in Augusta will indicate to those curious enough to make the inquiries. When at the National Capitol, and almost over- whelmed with work and care, he may have some- times been pardonably absent from the sanctuary ; but his pastor at Augusta bears witness, as many 64 LIFE OF JAMKS G. BLAIM:. others might do, that church-going is to him a sacred obligation, and that he and his family, and the stranger within his gates, unless for grave cause preventing, are to be found each Lord's Day filling their accustomed pew and joining in the services. Earnestness without parade or bigotry may well be given as a description of Mr. Blaine's religious life. The Yorktowh Centennial afforded, perhaps, the only interlude in Mr. Blaine's arduous and sombre experience as Secretary of State ; although per- plexing at the time, there was an element of humor in the careful handling necessary of the suscep- tibilities of the German and French guests on that occasion. The descendants of Lafayette and of Steuben showed no such tendency to coalesce in the glory of a common cause as did their ancestors a hundred years before. It may be said to their credit that their pride did not seem to be personal, but national ; yet the effect was the same, so long as they were to be treated as representatives of their nations. If the slightest honor was shown to the flag of one country which was not instantly shown to the other ; if a polite attention was extended to one party which was not balanced by something equivalent for the other ; if the two groups were even brought in too close proximity, there was haughty sniffing and bridling which threatened the dreadful scandal, of one or both sets of guests going off in the midst of the enter- PERSONAL TRAITS AND CHARACTERISTICS. 65 tainment. Mr. Blaine was the very man to have charge in such an emergency, but his patience, as well as his adroitness, were sometimes thoroughly tried. The French, doubtless, considered them- selves entitled to the greater share of hereditary gratitude and recognition, but the Germans were quite as determined that the French should not get it, and the stiffness of Prussian military etiquette (they were all officers) made it the more easy to offend them. The cordial manner of the Secretary of State smoothed over many difficulties, and the guests of the nation all departed in pleasant mood. One of the flying anecdotes of the time is, per- haps, worthy of preservation. At a dinner given by Mr. Blaine at his temporary place of residence at Yorktown to the President, and other of the most distinguished persons in attendance, Mr. Arthur, in the course of the conversation, remarked that the next Centennial celebration upon that spot would be a still more imposing event, "And who knows," he said, turning to Mr. Blaine, "that a grandson of yours may not then be President of the United States?" Whereupon, Senator Anthony, who sat by, observed, with a suspicion of slyness, that "he had understood the family, and the country were not willing to wait quite that long." CHAPTER IV. WARM-HEARTED AND BELOVED. THE attachment of Mr. Elaine to his birth- place is so strong and so unusual, that the infer- ence is clear that his childhood must have been a happy one. No place will ever hold the same interest in his affection as Washington County, Pennsylvania. He remembers, with fondness, every running brook, every tree, every stone, every tradition, every incident connected with its history, and every name numbered in its citizen- ship, for the last hundred years. He recalls, with peculiar tenderness, his early boyhood there, his old teachers, his old school fellows. This feeling is one which seems to be a characteristic of natures which are at once capacious and ardent. It was strongly developed in Webster, and in many of the greatest statesmen of this and other lands. It is something quite distinct from mere state pride, admirable as that also is when kept within due bounds. It does not depend upon artificial constitutions or institutions, but is an attachment to one's native soil and locality as such. It is undoubtedly the natural foundation of that intense national patriotism, which is so marked an element CO WARM-HEARTED AND BELOVED. 6j in Mr. Elaine's character, that it has attracted the attention and provoked the criticism of English journals, which deprecate his election to the Presi- dency, upon the ground that he is too thoroughly "American." The criticism is one which will not injure Mr. Blaine with the people of the United States, native or adopted. Against these passing cavils, born of selfish desires and fears, we may well set the philosophic words of a great English writer, who tells us that, " Whatever strengthens our local attachments, is favorable both to individ- ual and national character. Our home, our birth- place, our native land think for a while what the virtues are which arise out of the feelings con- nected with these words, and, if you have any intellectual eyes, you will then perceive the con- nection between topography and patriotism." Mr. Elaine's love for his birth-place is shown by the following letter, which he wrote a few days before the death of President Garfield, and which illustrates his mastery of that graceful and elo- quent style, in which he easily excels all other public men of this generation. "WASHINGTON, D. C, Sept. 5, 1881. " To John McKennan, Esq., Washington, Pa., " DEAR SIR : I had anticipated great pleasure in being present at the centennial celebration of the erection of Washington County, but the national sorrow which shad- ows every household detains me here. I shall, perhaps, never again have the opportunity of seeing so many of 68 LIFE OF JAMES C,. BLAINE. my blood and kindred, and you may well conceive that my disappointment is great The strong attachment which I feel for the county, the pride which I cherish in its traditions, and the high estimate which I have always placed on the character of its people, increase with years and reflection. The pioneers were strong-hearted, God fearing, resolute men, wholly, or almost wholly, of Scotcl or Scotch-Irish descent They were men, who, accord, ing to an inherited maxim, never turned their backs upor. a friend or an enemy. ******* " It would be impossible to overestimate the beneficent and wide-spread influence which Washington and Jeffer- son College have exerted on the civilization of that great country between the Alleghenies and the Mississippi river. Their graduates have been prominent in the pulpit, at the bar, on the bench and in the high stations of public life. During my service of eighteen years in Congress, I have met a larger number of the alumni of Washington and Jefferson than of any other single college in the United States. I make this statement from memory, but I feel assured that a close examination of the rolls of the two houses from 1863 to 1881 would fully establish its correctness. It was inevitable that a county thus peopled should grow in strength, wisdom and wealth. Its 60,000 inhabitants are favored far beyond the average lot of man. 11 They are blessed with a fertile soil, and with the health- giving climate which belongs to the charmed latitude of the 4Oth parallel, the middle of the wheat and corn belt of the country. Beyond this, they enjoy the happy and ennobling influences of scenery as grand and as beautiful as that which lures tourists thousands of miles beyond the sea. I have myself visited many of the celebrated WARM-HEARTED AND BELOVED. Jl spots in Europe, and in America, and I have nowhere witnessed a more attractive sight than was familiar to my eyes in boyhood from the old Indian Hill Farm, where I was born, and where my great grandfather, the elder Neal Gillespie, settled before the outbreak of the Revolution. The majestic sweep of the Monongahela through the foot hills of the Alleghenies, with the chain of mountains but twenty miles distant in full view, gave an impression of beauty and sublimity which can never be effaced. " I talk thus familiarly of the localities and of child- hood incidents because your assemblage, though com- posed of thousands, will, in effect, be a family reunion, where the only thing in order will be tradition and recol- lection and personal history. Identified as I have been for twenty-eight years with the great and noble people of another section of the Union. I have never lost any of my attachment for my native county and my native state. Wherever I may be in life or whatever my fortunes, the county of Washington, as it anciently was, taking in both sides of the Monongahela, will be sacred in my memory. I shall always recall with pride that my ancestry and kindred were and are not inconspicuously connected with its history, and that on either side of the beautiful river, in the Protestant and in the Catholic cemeteries, five gen- erations of my own blood sleep in honored graves. " Very sincerely yours, "JAMES G. ELAINE." No less was his popularity in Washing-ton County, even as a youth, and to-day he is not for- gotten, but is remembered and beloved by all the old residents. The same peculiarity has followed him wherever he has gone ; his college mates 72 LIFE OF JAMES G. I5LAINF. remember him first of all their associates. As a tutor in Kentucky, his pupils have never forgot- ten him nor lost their old time liking and admira- tion for him. Among those who knew him at the Institution for the Blind in Philadelphia the same high regard exists. In Maine, where he has lived for over thirty years, within a square of the pic- turesque old State House, not one person has declared his unfriendliness to the great friend of the people. His neighbors, from the youngest to the oldest, are his best friends, and no man in the beautiful city of Augusta is more popular or more respected. His standing at home is therefore all that can be desired. Rufus Choate once said, " Ask what his friends, neighbors and townsmen think of him, if you want to know what the man really is." Judged by this standard, Mr. Elaine has nothing to fear. An old citizen of Augusta says that Mr. Elaine's life as a man has been identified with the people of Maine. "We have known him," said he, "in every- relation of life, closely and intimately, through all these years, and in every way, we say in the presence of his daily associates, Mr. Elaine has had a spotless career. As husband, father, neighbor, citizen, business man, every one in this community, without regard to party lines, will give him unstinted praise ; in personal morals, in habits of temperance, in uprightness in busi- ness, and in devotion to extraordinary as well as .WARM-HEARTED AND BELOVED. 73 ordinary duties, Mr. Elaine is a pattern man. He has been fortunate in life, but his good fortune has been the result of good habits and good sense, and he has been so generous, not only with money, but with time and sympathy, that envy and jealousy have not followed him. He has an elegant, refined, Christian home, open to every demand of hospitality ; and there is not a poor man in the town who hesitates to enter it for relief, or who goes away empty-handed. "Mr. Elaine has always been a model of honor and uprightness in his financial dealings. His word is as good as his bond, and no debt was ever unpaid, or grudgingly paid, or evaded by him. This whole community will absolutely tes- tify to his liberality, and bear witness how wisely and constantly he has given to all good and worthy objects. " Men may be tempted by the necessities of a desperate political campaign to resort to ' mud- throwing' to assail Mr. Elaine's character, but against all such efforts we present a man who has the universal respect and attachment of neighbors who have known him throughout his whole career, and know that he has been a centre of good and not of evil all his life ; a man who has a State behind him of absolute unanimity, and who has to-day a more devoted and enthusiastic personal following than any other man in the United States." 5 74 LI FE OF JAMES G. ELAINE. As an example of Mr. Elaine's sympathy and generosity, an incident coming within the obser- vation of the writer may be noticed. A young journalist, who had been friendly to Mr. Blaine, or at least not prejudiced against him, was lying very ill at his residence in Washington. His expenses were heavy, and his income was wholly cut off. Another journalist told Mr. Blaine of the condition of the sick man and his family. Mr. Blaine, then Speaker, was about to open the day's session of the House. When he heard the story, he said, "Wait a moment," and went to his offi- cial desk. The usual morning prayer was said, and then, while the Journal of the previous day's session was being read, Mr. Blaine called a mem- ber to the chair and joined his newspaper friend in the Speaker's lobby. " Come with me," said he ; and, going directly to the office of the Sergeant-at-Arms, he drew one hundred dollars in bills, and, handing them to the gentleman, said, "If you get a chance to give this to his family without wounding their pride or subjecting them to obligation, do so, only do not let my name be mentioned." It so happened that the money was not needed, but the kindly disposition of the man was thus illustrated. And this is only one instance among the almost num- berless cases where his purse has been opened wherever its contents could relieve distress or misery, or serve some good cause. WARM-HEARTED AND BELOVED. 7* The following remarks of the Rev. Dr. Ecob, now in charge of a large congregation in Albany, N. Y., are appropriate in this connection. No truer, better man than he .ever entered a pulpit. "I have known Mr. Elaine," says this gentleman, "since 1872. During nearly ten years of that time I was pastor of the church in Augusta of which Mr. and Mrs. Elaine are members. The satisfaction I take in his nomination is based upon such a knowledge of him as only a pastor can gain. I believe that I am too true a Republican, and I know that my conception of citizenship is too high, to permit me to ratify the exaltation of any man whose character has not the true ring. I have been very near to Mr. Elaine, not only in the most trying political crises, but in the sharper trial of great grief in the household, and have never yet detected a false note. I would not be understood as avowing too much for human nature. I mean that as I have known him he has stood loyally by his convictions ; that his word has always had back of it a clear purpose, and that purpose has always been worthy of the highest manhood. "In his house he was always the soul of gen- iality and good heart. It was always summer in that house whatever the Maine winter might be without. And not only his ' rich neighbors and kinsmen ' welcomed him home, but a long line of the poor hailed the return of that family as a 76 LIFE OF JAMES G. BLAINE special providence. In the church he is honored and beloved. The good old New England cus- tom of church-going with all the guests is enforced strictly in the Blaine household. Whoever is under his roof, from the President down, is expected to be with the family at church. Fair Vveather or foul, those pews were always well filled. Not only his presence on the Sabbath, but his influence, his wise counsels, his purse, are freely devoted to the interest of the noble Old South Church of Augusta. "The hold which Mr. Blaine has maintained upon the hearts of such great numbers of his countrymen is not sufficiently explained by bril- liant gifts of magnetism ; the secret lies in his generous, manly, Christian character. Those who have known him best are not surprised that his friends all over the country have been determined that he should secure the highest honor within their gift. It is because they believe in him. The office has sought the man, the political papers to the contrary notwithstanding. I have absolute knowledge that in 1 880 he did not lift a finger to influence the Convention. He was quietly at home devoting himself to his business affairs, and steadfastly refused even the entreaties of his own family to interest himself in behalf of the nomina- tion. I, for one, shall put my conscience into my vote next November." CHAPTER V. AN AMERICAN OF THE AMERICANS. THERE is nothing which has more commended Mr. Elaine to the admiration and enthusiastic support of his fellow-countrymen, whether they were distinctly conscious of the quality in him or not, than the thoroughly native quality and fibre of his character. He is above all things an American. It is scarcely necessary, to qualify this by saying that there is in him none of the narrow- ness of the so-called "Native American," or "Know Nothing," and none of that harmful ex- cess of feeling to which the French, who afford perhaps the best specimens of it, have given the name of "Chauvinism." His sympathies, though first for his own nation, are also wide enough to embrace the whole "boundless continent," which he thinks ought to be "ours" by the peaceful conquest of mutual commerce and friendship, and every man is to him an American who gives his undivided faith and allegiance to the Constitution and the Union, and is ready to merge himself in the body of the American people. With only this proviso he is ready to espouse the cause of any citizen or class of citizens, wherever they may 78 LIFE OF JAMES G. ELAINE. have been born, or of whatever race, or whether dwelling in our own borders or traveling abroad. The words which in his memorial address he applied to the lamented Garfield, with whom he had so many admirable qualities in common, might Well be applied to the orator who spoke : "Himself a conspicuous illustration of what ability and ambition may do under republican institutions, he loved his country with a passion of patriotic devotion, and every waking thought was given to her advancement. He was an American in all his aspirations, and he looked to the destiny and influence of the United States with the philosophic composure of Jefferson, and the demonstrative confidence of John Adams." And again : "He believed that our continental relations, extensive and undeveloped as they are, involved responsibility, and could be cultivated into profitable friendship, or be abandoned to harmful indifference or lasting enmity. He be- lieved, with equal confidence, that an essential forerunner to a new era of national progress must be a feeling of contentment in every section of the Union, and a generous belief that the benefits and burdens of government would be common to all." This active patriotism in Mr. Elaine's character explains many features of his career. He is not one to be satisfied with making mere lip-profes- sions of devotion, or even being ready to defend his country when attacked. He wishes at all AN AMERICAN OF THE AMERICANS. 79 times to be doing something in her service, either to advance prosperity at home, or assert her proper position abroad, among the nations of the earth two things which in this stage of the world's progress are indeed inseparable. Thus, in 1878, he braved the odium which then attached to the very name of subsidy, and advo- cated the establishment and maintenance of a line of mail steamers to Brazil, to which the Emperor Dom Pedro lately returned, full of enthusiasm, from his visit to the United States, had already extended aid conditional upon that from the United States. He showed that by this very policy Great Britain had crowded the American sailor off the seas, and he appealed to Congress to right this wrong, saying: "I maintain, Mr. President, that if the United States had not met with the incalculable obstacle that was thrown upon us by the war, and had been willing to uphold* her shipping just as stiffly as Great Britain on all the lines of commerce, we should have outrun her. We had done it in sail- ing-vessels. We were ahead of her, or at least equal to her, in 1857. If I remember the figures aright, the tonnage stood about 5,700,000 tons for each country, and I grieve to say that it is eight million and odd for Great Britain, and only three million for America to-day. You may stand here and talk about the wrongfulness of subsidies, and the impolicy of granting them, until doomsday, 8O LIFE OF JAMES G. BLAINE. and Great Britain will applaud every speech of that kind made in the American Congress, and will quietly subsidize her steamers and take pos- session of the commerce of the world. Great Britain to-day makes more money out of the com- merce of the United States, vastly more, than is the interest on our public debt. She handles more, in the way of net profits, on the commerce which America gives her, than the interest on the vast national debt which we are burdened with to-da*y. I make that statement as a statistical fact, capable of being illustrated and proved." The aid was refused, and American trade is still cut off from Brazil, or goes only by way of Liverpool, in British steamers. Again, in 1881, he pleaded for the re-establishment of American shipping, opposing, at the same time, the propo- sition of Senator Beck to throw open our doors to the ship-builders of the Clyde. His watchword was still, "Everything American." He said: " Mr. President, the frank admission of the honorable Senator from Kentucky took away a large part of the argument which I thought I should have to make, and that was to prove that if the United States to-day is incompetent to com- pete with Great Britain in the manufacture of iron ships, and if you admit iron ships from Great Britain absolutely free of duty, you will be still more incompetent to do it next year. It takes, in the language of the trade, what is called a great AN AMERICAN OF THE AMERICANS. 8 1 'plant' to build steamships ; it takes a large in- vestment of money ; it takes large and powerful machinery ; it requires the investment of millions to start with ; and if, in addition to all that has been done abroad to build up English ship-yards, we pour into them all the patronage that can come from this country, I should like the honorable Senator from Kentucky, or any other Senator, to tell me exactly at what point of time it will come to pass that any feeble effort on this side will begin to compete with those great yards. If you abandon it this year because you are unable, you will be far more unable next year, you will be still less able the year ensuing, and every year will add to the monopoly of British power in that respect, and to the absolute weakness and prostration of Ameri- can power in competition. But I will say that the frank admission of the honorable Senator from Kentucky, of the future and perpetual dependence upon England removes the necessity of arguing that point. He frankly admits it with all its damaging force." In 1879, Mr. Blaine said, in speaking of the ex- penses of the navy, which has no commerce to protect : "We carried five-sevenths of the Ameri- can commerce when the war broke out. We do not carry one-quarter to-day, and if we come out of the deep abyss of humiliation that we are in, we will come out of it by vigorous and strong-nerved and daring legislation, if you please. I would 82 LIFE OF JAMES G. ELAINE. open it to all the business of the country, but I would put the race between American skill and the skill of all the world, with the utmost possible confidence that, sustained by this Government in the race, we would win. It is in our people. With an equal chance we can beat them. But, with the present condition of things, a hope for the revival of American commerce is as idle a hope as ever entered the brain of an insane man. Our trade is falling off one or two per cent, per annum as we stand to-day. It was less this year than it was last. It was less last year than it was the year before. It will be less next year than this. * # * * * "We want a navy, but we want something for it to do. We want a navy to protect the com- merce, but we want a commerce in advance for the navy to protect, and we want a commerce that shall not be one of favoritism ; a commerce that shall not benefit one section at the expense of another, but one that shall be equal and just and generous and profitable to all. You will never get it by making this nation a tributary to Great Britain. You will never get it by banishing the art of ship-building from among our people. You will never get it by discouraging all possible aspi- rations for maritime and commercial supremacy, by a public proclamation from Congress that after nearly a century of gallant struggle, in which more than three-quarters of the time we were AN AMERICAN OF THE AMERICANS. 83 ahead in the race, on account of an accidental mis- hap that put us behind, we of to-day, not having the nerve or the sagacity of those who went before us, sank before the prospect, and asked other nations to do for us what we have lost the man- hood and the energy to do for ourselves." There is nothing of the spread-eagle in this. It is the langauge of a statesman who^ wishes prac- tically to benefit his country, who is not only proud of her resources, but wishes to see them developed, and who knows that a great people should not re- main supine in the race for peaceful supremacy on the globe. In the same way he appealed to a proper national pride, when, in 1878, as a friend of bi-metal- lic currency, he withstood not only the advocates of the single gold standard but those of the unlimited coinage of the depreciated dollar, and urged the coinage of a silver dollar of equal value with that of gold. He showed that it would not only tend to restore silver for international ex- changes, but that it would " insure to our laborers at home a full dollar's pay for a dollar's worth of work," a matter always of deep concern to him. On this point he further said : " And I think we owe this to the American laborer. Ever since we demonetized the old dollar we have been running our mints at full speed, coining a new silver dollar for the use of the Chinese cooly and the Indian pariah a dol- 84 LIFE OF JAMES G. BLAINE. lar containing 420 grains of standard silver, with its superiority over our ancient dollar ostenta- tiously engraved on its reverse side. To these 'outside barbarians' we send this superior dollar, bearing all our national emblems, our patriotic devices, our pious inscriptions, our goddess of liberty, our defiant eagle, our federal unity, our trust in God. This dollar contains 7^ grains more silver than the famous 'dollar of the fathers' proposed to be recoined by the pending bill, and more than four times as many of these new dol- lars have already been coined as ever were coined of all other silver dollars in the United States. In the exceptional and abnormal condition of the silver market now existing throughout the world, we have felt compelled to increase the weight of the dollar with which we carry on trade with the heathen nations of Asia. And shall we do less for the American laborer at home ? Nay, shall we not do a little better and a little more for those of our own blood and our own friends ? If you remonetize the dollar of the fathers, your mints will be at once put to work on two different dol- lars ; different in weight, different in value, differ- ent in prestige, different in their reputation and currency throughout the commercial world. It will read strangely in history that the weightier and more valuable of these dollars is made for an ignorant class of heathen laborers in China and India, and that the lighter and less valuable is AN AMERICAN OF THE AMERICANS. 85 made for the intelligent and educated laboring man who is a citizen of the United States. Char- ity, the adage says, begins at home. Charity, the independent American laborer scorns to ask, but he has the right to demand that justice shouid begin at home. And in his name, and in the name of common sense and common honesty, I ask that the American Congress will not force upon the American laborer an inferior dollar, which the naked and famishing and degraded laborers of India and China refuse to accept." CHAPTER VI. A FRIEND OF LABOR AND ENTERPRISE. MR. ELAINE'S sympathy goes naturally, and has always gone, to the workingman. He comes from a place and from among a people where honest labor is considered a badge of honor, and where the maxim, "If any man will not work, neither shall he eat," is thoroughly believed in. He has himself spent a life of constant exertion, either in public or private employ, and none of the pains or the pleasures of such a life are unknown to him. The phrase "workingman's friend" has been so abused by demagogues that Mr. Elaine has never put forward a claim to it, or paraded himself in that character; but his adhe- rence to the cause has been steady and unosten- tatious. He has, in fact, felt himself one with the toiling millions, and has spoken as one of them, as it were in his own behalf as well as theirs, and never as if condescending from any height above them. The result has been a ready and cordial sym- pathy between himself and those of his fellow- citizens who eat their bread in the sweat of their face, earning a livelihood with active brain, or 86 A FRIEND OF LABOR AND ENTERPRISE. 8/ deft fingers, or strong arms. He has a lively and profound interest in all that pertains to them, whether they be those who swing the sledge and axe, or drive the plane, or delve in the mine, or control with skill and courage the powerful agen- cies of steam. His constant effort has been to aid the develop- ment of American industry, not only by maintain- ing the duties on imports, \vhich protect the American manufacturer and mechanic against ruinous competition from abroad, and have there- by added so much to the accumulated wealth and resources of the country, but also by opening new fields for enterprise in the direction of ship-build- ing, the ocean-carrying trade, and commerce \vith countries which need our products. His plans and policy all tend toward improving the condition of the laborer and artisan, toward preserving to him the home market, which is so rapidly increasing by the growth of population, and at the same time adding a foreign one by developing trade relations with our sister repub- lics in this hemisphere, the countries of Asia and Africa, which are now too much monopolized by Europe, and even with Europe itself, where American ingenuity, if once fully appreciated, would find a welcome. This ready and warm-hearted sympathy with the wage-earner has been displayed in many ways by Mr. Elaine. When the question of the cur- 88 i 111: OF JAMT.S <;. IM.AINI-:. rrnry was before Congress, under exciting cir- cumstances, in iS;6, Mr. Blaine (whose record in this particular is clear) took the side of honest money as opposed to wild inflation. What was the reason which he put foremost for this action? It was that the interests of the workingman would be injuriously affected by the opposite course. In his speech before the House of Representatives, February loth, 1876, Mr. Elaine explained, with equal vigor and clearness, the effect which would be produced by perpetuating an irredeemable paper currency, and distinguished this from the effects produced by its original issue during the war. He said : " Uncertainty as to the value of the currency from day to day is injurious to all honest industry. And while that which is known as the debtor interest should be fairly and generously considered in the shaping of mea- sures for specie resumption, there is no justice in asking for inflation on its behalf. Rather there is the gravest injustice; for you must remember that there is a large class of most deserviug persons who would be continually and remorselessly robbed by such a policy. I mean the Jstltor of the country, that is compelled to live from and by its daily earnings. The savings-banks, which repre- sent the surplus owned by the laborers of the nation, have deposits to-day exceeding eleven hundred millions of dollars more than the entire capital stock and deposits of the national banks. The pensioners, who represent the patriotic suffering of the country, have a capital ixed investment of six hundred millions of dollars. Here are A FRIEND OF LABOR AND ENTERPRISE. 89 seventeen hundred millions of money incapable of re- ceiving anything but instant and lasting injury from infla- tion. Whatever impairs the purchasing power of the dollar correspondingly decreases the resources of the savings-bank depositor and pensioner. The pensioner's loss would be absolute, but it would probably be argued that the laborer would receive compensation by his nomi- nally larger earnings. But this would prove totally delu- sive, for no possible augmentation of wages in a time of inflation will ever keep pace with the still greater increase of price in the commodities necessary to sustain life, ex- cept and mark th.e exception under the condition wit- nessed during the war, when the number of laborers was continually reduced by the demand for men to serve in the Army and Navy. And those honest-minded people who recall the startling activity of trade, and the large profits during the war, and attribute both to an inflated currency, commit the error of leaving out the most im- portant element of the calculation. They forget that the Government was a customer for nearly four years at the rate of two or three millions of dollars per day buying countless quantities of all staple articles ; they forget that the number of consumers was continually enlarging as our armed force grew to its gigantic proportions, and that the number of producers was by the same cause continu- ally growing less, and that thus was presented, on a scale of unprecedented magnitude, that simple problem, familiar alike to the political economist and the village trader, of the demand being greater than the supply, and a conse- quent rise in the price. Had the government been able to conduct the war on a gold basis, and provided the coin for its necessarily large and lavish expenditure, a rise in the price of labor, and a rise in the value of commodities, would have been inevitable. And the rise of both labor 6 9O LIFE OF JAMES G. HI. A INF. and commodities in gold would have been for the time as marked as in paper, adding, of course, the depreciation of the latter to its scale of prices." And a little further on, in the same speech, he continued, in words which it may be permissible to quote as showing another of his most cherished ideas, as follows : " One great and leading interest of my own and other States has suffered, still suffers, and will continue to suffer so long as the currency is of irredeemable paper. I mean the ship-building and navigation interest one that does more for the country and asks less (rom it than any other except the agricultural ; an interest that repre- sents our distinctive nationality in all climes and upon all seas; an interest more essentially and intensely American than any other that falls under the legislative power of the Government, and which asks only to-day to be left where the founders of the Republic placed it a hundred years ago. Give us the same basis of currency that our great competitors of the British Empire enjoy, and we will, within the life-time of those now living, float a larger tonnage under the American flag than was ever enrolled by one nationality since the science of navigation has been known among men. Aye, more, sir; give us the specie basis, and the merchant marine of America, sailing into all zones and gathering grain from all continents, will bring back to our shores its golden profits, and supply to us that coin which will steady our system and offset the drains that weaken us in other directions. But ships built on the paper basis cannot compete with the lower-priced ones of the gold basis, and whoever advo- A FRIEND OF LABOR AND ENTERPRISE. gj cates a perpetuity of paper money in this country con- fesses his readiness and willingness to sacrifice the navi- gation and commercial interest for all time." This genuine feeling for the honest worker and desire to see labor reap its full reward is, in Mr. Elaine's mind, limited to no particular class, but extends to the farmer as well as to the mechanic and sailor, to those of the West and South as well as to those of the East. He has, in fact, kinships and associations with them all, having been, as he says in one of his public addresses, " born and reared amid an agricultural community in Western Pennsylvania, and lived all the years of my maturer life in the best agricultural district in Maine," besides his briefer experience as far South as Kentucky. It was therefore naturally, and without affectation, that he concluded his address before -the State Fair at Minneapolis, in September, 1878, in this strain of prophetic elo- quence, conveying a eulogy of the farmer's life worthy of Franklin : " During all the depression of trade and commerce and manufactures prevailing for these past five years, you have steadily progressed in comfort, independence and wealth. While thousands elsewhere have lacked employ- ment, and many, I fear, have lacked bread, no able-bodied man in Minnesota has been without remunerative labor, and no one has gone to bed hungry. Your pursuits and their results form the basis of the ideal Republic happily indeed realized within your own borders. The 92 LIFE OF IAMKS G. ELAINE. tendency of all your industry is toward the accumulation of independent competency, and does not favor the upbuilding of colossal fortunes. You are dealing daily with the essential things of life, and not warped in your judgment nor deflected from your course by speculative and illusory schemes of advancement and gain. You are land-owners, free-holders, a proud title that comes to us with centuries of civilization and strength a title that every man in this country should make it his object to acquire and to honor. Self-government among the owners of the soil in America is an instinct, and where that ownership is widely distributed good government is the rule. Whatever disturbances, therefore, may threaten the peace and order of society, whatever theories, trans- planted from other climes, may seek foot-hold here, the Republic of the United States rests securely on that basis of agriculture where the farmers of the Revolution and the framers of the Constitution placed it. The man who possesses broad acres, which he has earned by the sweat of his brow, is not apt to fall in with the doctrine of the Communist, that no one has a right to ownership in the soil. The man who has the product of his labor in wheat and in corn, in pork and in beef, in hides and in wool commanding gold and silver as they always have and always will in the markets of the world is not to be led astray with theories of fiat paper and absolute money, but instinctively consigns such wild vagaries to the appro- priate domain of fiat folly and absolute nonsense. The farmers of the Republic will control its destiny. Agriculture, commerce and manufactures are the three pursuits that enrich a nation but the greatest of these is agriculture for without its products the spindle cannot turn and the ship will not sail. Agriculture furnishes the conservative element in society, and in the end is the guid- A FRIEND OF LABOR AND ENTERPRISE. 93 ing, restraining, controlling force in government. Against storms of popular fury ; against frenzied madness that seeks collision with established order ; against theories of administration that have drenched other lands in blood ; against the spirit of anarchy that would sweep away the landmarks and safeguards of Christian society and Repub- lican government, the farmers of the United States will stand as a shield and the bulwark themselves the willing subjects of law and therefore its safest and strongest administrators." And he added, in language that would suffice to meet any idea that his outlook is limited to the Eastern States: " Gradually the Government of the Republic is passing under the control of the farmers of the Mississippi valley. Indeed it is practically there to-day. The swelling and on-rushing tide of population is toward the plains and the rich acres that lie between the two mountain ranges of the continent. The soil is so fertile, the land so in- viting, the area is so broad, that no man may dare calcu- late the possibilities of this great region, either as respects production or population. Your own State, peopled no more densely than New York, would have a population of nine millions ; peopled as densely as Massachusetts, you would have a population of sixteen millions. With the transfer of political control from the old States to the new, there is also transferred a vast weight of responsi- bility. It is yours to-day ; it will be yours still more to-morrow. Take it ; use it wisely and well for the ad- vancement of the whole for the honor of all The patriotic traditions of the ' old thirteen ' that fought the battles of the Revolution, formed the Union of the States, 94 i in-: ' '' J AMI > G. m AIM . and planted liberty in the organic laws, will be your safest guide your highest inspiration, Many of you mingle with your love for Minnesota, your earlier affection for the old home and the old State far to the East, where an honored ancestry lie buried, and where the tenderest memories cluster around the familiar scenes of days long past. It is this kinship of blood, these ties of relation- ships that make us indeed one people uniting the East and West, the North and the South, in the indissoluble bond of a common and I trust always beneficent Govern- ment." Mr. Elaine is no fair-weather friend. He has stood by the American workingman when to do so cost obloquy, censure and the loss of favor from influential persons. A considerable part of the opposition to his candidacy to-day, especially among the wealthy Brahmin caste and the fanati- cal element in Massachusetts, dates from his un- hesitating advocacy of the measures to limit the importation of Chinese labor, this being also one of the planks in the platform on which he now stands. When the late William Lloyd Garrison published a denunciation of the Republican Sena-, tors who voted for the bill restricting Chinese immigration, Mr. Elaine replied, in a letter to the New York Tribune, in February, 1879, showing that there was nothing inconsistent in their action with the traditions of the Republican party in welcoming immigration from Europe of free and law-abiding men, who meant to mingle in good faith with our population, or in protecting the A FRIEND OF LABOR AND ENTERPRISE. 95 large colored population already among us and enrolled as citizens. His final and conclusive reason for his action was that the exclusion was necessary in order to prevent the degradation of the American laborer to the level of the coolie, with whom he would otherwise be brought in ruinous competition. He said, "We do not want cheap labor; we do not want dear labor. We want labor at fair rates ; at rates that shall give the laborer his fair share, and capital its fair share. If more is sought by capital, less will in the end be realized." After pointing out that coolie labor implied all the evils of the black slave labor against which Mr. Garrison had contended so successfully, and that dangerous civil commotions would result from a sudden and general reduction of wages, Mr. Elaine concluded : "I feel and know that I am pleading the cause of the free American laborer, and of his children and of his children's children. It has been well said that it is the cause of 'the house against the hovel ; of the comforts of the freeman against the squalor of the slave.' It has been charged that my position would arraign labor-saving machinery and condemn it. This answer is not only super- ficial, it is also absurd. Labor-saving machinery has multiplied the power to pay, has developed new wants, and has continually enlarged the area of labor, and constantly advanced the wages of the laborer. But servile toil has always dragged 96 LIFE OF JAMES G. ELAINE. free labor to its lowest level, and has stripped it of one muniment after another until it was help- less and hopeless. Whenever that condition comes to the free laborer of America, the Repub- lic of equal rights is gone, and we shall live under the worst of oligarchies that of mere wealth, whose profit only measures the wretchedness of the unpaid toilsmen that produce it." CHAPTER VII. THE ORATOR. MR. ELAINE has never set himself to gain the reputation of an orator. His public speaking has always been of a practical sort, intended to effect some important object, without time to consider many of the graces of rhetoric. For this purpose his style and manner are well adapted. He is clear, forcible and direct, and always terribly in earnest, a fiery " Rupert of debate." His voice is of good carrying power ; his utterance rapid but distinct, and his tall, well-poised figure, constantly in motion ; his vigorous gestures and flashing eye, convey his own intensity of conviction, and seem to bear down all opposition before them. By some he has been criticised as almost too vehe- ment, and even brusque in his argument and attack, but it should be understood that this is merely his natural and unconscious manner, and does not mark any personal feeling toward his opponents. No man is more free from this pet- tiness. He carries away no resentments from the hardest tussle of logic and argument, always meets good-humor and compliment in the course of it with equal heartiness, and only resorts to personal 97 98 I IFF. or JAMKS (,. HI.AINK. retort upon the strongest provocation. Some of his warmest friends have been those with whom he had the most doughty verbal conflicts upon the floor of Congress or the campaign rostrum. But, on the few occasions, when he has had time to study his language and expression, he has easily risen to heights which show that his reputation as an orator is at least potentially deserved, and might have been made as actual as that of a Chatham or a Sheridan. Such an instance is the conclusion of "his matchless address in commemo- ration of the martyred Garfield, delivered before the great auditory that assembled in the Hall of Representatives, on the 27th day of February, 1882. With exquisite simplicity, but with the deepest feeling apparent in every word, he then said : " On the morning of Saturday, July 2d, the President was a contented and happy man not in an ordinary degree, but joyfully, almost boy- ishly happy. On his way to the railroad station, to which he drove slowly, in conscious enjoyment of the beautiful morning, with an unwonted sense of leisure and a keen anticipation of pleasure, his talk was all in the grateful and gratulatory vein. He felt that after four months of trial his admin- istration was strong in its grasp of affairs, strong in popular favor, and destined to grow stronger ; that grave difficulties confronting him at his inauguration had been safely passed ; that trouble THE ORATOR. 99 lay behind him and not before him ; that he was soon to meet the wife whom he loved, now recovering from an illness which had but lately disquieted, and, at times, almost unnerved him ; that he was going to his Alma Mater to renew the most cherished associations of his young manhood, and to exchange greetings with those whose deepening interest had followed every step of his upward progress from the day he entered upon his college course until he had attained the loftiest elevation in the gift of his countrymen. "Surely, if happiness can ever come from the honors or triumphs of this world, on that quiet July morning James A. Garfield may well have been a happy man. No foreboding of evil haunted him ; no slightest premonition of danger clouded his sky. His terrible fate was upon him in an instant. One moment he stood erect, strong, coa fident in the years stretching peacefully out before him. The next he lay wounded, bleeding, help- less, doomed to weary weeks of torture, to silence, and the grave. " Great in life, he was surpassingly great in death. For no cause, in the very frenzy of want- onness and wickedness, by the red hand of murder, he was thrust from the full tide of this world's interest, from its hopes, its aspirations, its victories, into the visible presence of death and he did not quail. Not alone, for the one short moment in which, stunned and dazed, he could IOO l.IFK OF |. \MF.S G. BI.AIXK. give up life, hardly aware of its relinquishment, but through days of deadly languor, through weeks of agony, that was not less agony because silently borne, with clear sight and calm courage, he looked into his open grave. What blight and ruin met his anguished eyes, whose lips may tell what brilliant, broken plans, what baffled, high ambitions, what sundering of strong, warm, man- hood's friendships, what bitter rending of sweet household ties ! Behind him a proud, expectant nation, a great host of sustaining friends, a cherished and happy mother, wearing the full, rich honors of her early toil and tears ; the wife of his youth, whose whole life lay in his ; the little boys not yet emerged from childhood's day of frolic ; the fair young daughter ; the sturdy sons just springing into closest companionship, claim- ing every day and every day rewarding a father's love and care ; and in his heart the eager, rejoicing power to meet all demand. Before him, deso- lation and great darkness ! And his soul was not shaken. His countrymen were thrilled with instant, profound, and universal sympathy. Masterful in his mortal weakness, he became the centre of a nation's love, enshrined in the prayers of a world. But all the love and all the sympathy could not share with him his suffering. He trod the wine-press alone. With unfaltering front he faced death. With unfailing tenderness he took leave of life. Above the demoniac hiss of the THE ORATOR. IOI assassin's bullet he heard the voice of God. With simple resignation he bowed to the divine decree. "As the end drew near, his early craving for the sea returned. The stately mansion of power had been to him the wearisome hospital of pain, and he begged to be taken from its prison walls, from its oppressive, stifling air, from its homeless- ness and its hopelessness. Gently, silently, the love of a great people bore the pale sufferer to the longed-for healing of the sea, to live or to die, as God should will, within sight of its heaving billows, within sound of its manifold voices. With wan, fevered face tenderly lifted to the cooling breeze, he looked out wistfully upon the oceans changing wonders ; on its far sails, whitening in the morn- ing light ; on its restless waves, rolling shoreward to break and die beneath the noonday sun ; on the red clouds of evening, arching low to the hori- zon ; on the serene and shining pathway of the stars. Let us think that his dying eyes read a mystic meaning which only the rapt and parting soul may know. Let us believe that in the silence of the receding world he heard the great waves breaking on a farther shore, and felt already upon his wasted brow the breath of the eternal morning." There is nothing simpler or more feeling in the English language. New beauties will be found in it as it is read over and over again. IO2 I.I IK ()!' JAMES (i. Ul.AINK. As an example of Mr. Blaine's directness, force and condensation in his public utterances, the following is given, and a stronger platform of principles could not well be formulated. Mr. Buchanan, after he was nominated for the Presi- dency, wrote : " I am no longer James Buchanan, but the Cincinnati platform." Mr. Blaine, how- ever, did not hesitate long in advance to give his political creed, thus : "The mighty power of a republic of fifty millions of people," said he, "with a continent for their possession, can only be wielded permanently by being wielded honestly. In a fair and generous struggle for partisan power let us not forget those issues and those ends which are above party. Organized wrong will ultimately be met by organized resistance. The sensitive and dangerous point is in the casting and the counting of free ballots. Impartial suffrage is our theory. It must become our practice. Any party of American citizens can bear to be defeated. No party of American citizens will bear to be defrauded. The men who are interested in a dishonest count are units. The men who are interested in an honest count are millions. I wish to speak for the millions of all political parties, and in their name to declare that the Republic must be strong enough, and shall be strong enough, to protect the weakest of its citizens in all their rights." CHAPTER VIII. THE BRILLIANT SPEAKER. THE period of the Speakership, from 1869 to 1875, was > a ^ things considered, the most brilliant of Mr. Elaine's brilliant career up to the present. The office is legally the third greatest in the government of the United States, and in the hands of a man of genius it easily becomes the second, if not the first, in importance. Although the House of Representatives may not have the same " omnipotence " that is ascribed to the Eng- lish House of Commons, it has the same control over the money-power, and its presiding officer wields an influence out of all comparison to that of his English compeer. The British Speaker is almost a machine, and to him the satirical descrip- tion aimed by the well-known humorist, Mr. Donn Piatt, at Mr. Elaine, is more truly applicable, " two- thirds parliamentary law, and one-third gavel." Mr. Peel, like his predecessors for centuries, is not subject to the mutation of politics, but expects to hold his place like a judge on the bench, during good behavior, or until retired after twenty years with a title and pension. The American Speaker occupies a position at 103 IO4 LIFE OF JAMES (J. HLAINE. once immensely more difficult and more distin- guished. He is elected by the party in the majority at the time, as their representative and exponent, yet he is expected to preserve judicial impartiality toward the opposition, who watch his every word and act, and are quick to protest against what they consider any unfairness. His control over all kinds of legislation, public and private, and his consequent responsibility, is almost beyond explanation to those not familiar there- with. Two points will suffice to give an idea of his power. In the first place, the Speaker alone decides the personnel of all the committees, those lesser Houses of Congress, in which all legislation is digested and put in form, where the initial battles over every measure are fought, and which by their power of reporting, or not reporting bills, posess a veto power almost equal to that of the Presi- dent. The Speaker directs absolutely and with- out appeal, who shall be chairman of each, who shall be his associates, and from what faction or element in the party selected, and who shall rep- resent the minority element. He must also assign places to those troublesome political non- descripts who are occasionally senfup by erratic constituencies Greenbackers, Independents, La- bor Party men, and fanatics of all shades, who do not fit into any regular scheme. A power so liable to abuse or mismangement in weak or THE BRILLIANT SPEAKER. 105 malicious hands has often caused agitation in favor of some method of selecting the list of commit- teemen by balloting in caucus, as it is done in the Senate, owing to the regular presiding officer there (the Vice President) not being chosen by that body. This agitation was never heard of while Mr. Elaine filled the Speaker's chair. A second power, inherent in the place, is that of recognizing or not recognizing those who rise with the intent of " catching that desirable disease, the Speaker's eye." In so large and turbulent a body as the House, it is not to be supposed that the Speaker allows his visual orb to wander at ran- dom, hitting whom it may, and awarding that man the floor, as it were, by lot. This method would indeed be difficult when two or a dozen, or indeed all the members, appear to be standing at once, clamoring "Mr. Speaker!" in that hubbub of different notes and accents that so confounds the unaccustomed visitor. Partly by previous arrange- ment, in which the Speaker must constantly use his best powers of discretion, partly by rapid decision in his own mind, he singles out those whom the interests of the party, or the demands of fairness, entitle to the honor, and thereby molds the expression of sentiment as well as the course of legislation in the House, save so far as he is controlled by the rules or by long custom, which also he decides upon and interprets. In such a place, Mr. Elaine's powers and dis- IO6 LIFE (>F JAMKS G. ELAINE. position shone resplendent. Much of his immense popularity dates from this era. It may be allowed to dwell for a moment, with renewed admiration, upon the stirring spectacle which was presented by the greatest speaker, since Henry Clay, in this meridian light. Even excluding all regard for the man, an enemy would have been fascinated and delighted, in spite of rancor, by the sheer intellectual force and perfect self-command dis- played. The Speaker seemed born to preside over just such an assemblage as that in which he found himself. Patient in the tedious passages of debate and routine, courteous under harrassing interruptions, impartial to friend and chivalric to foe, he rapidly rose with the rising tide of excite- ment and activity, caused by important business or personal feeling, towering to his full height, his voice, with something of the ring of the clarion in it, penetrating the loudest tumult, the gavel in his practised hand chiming in with varied tones that aptly enforced his words, from the sharp rat-tat- tat that recalled the House to decorum, to the vigorous thunder that actually drowned unpar- liamentary speech ; rulings, repartee, transcluent explanation flashing from his lips as quick as lightning, to the discomfiture of every assailant who tilted against him, until, with the whole House in full cry, the waves of debate rolling and surging around the base of the marble throne, on which the Speaker is installed, he seemed, like the THE BRILLIANT SPEAKER. creature of Addison's imagination, to " ride on 'the whirlwind and direct the storm." This is not the language of exaggerated praise, but simply an attempt to convey the impression made upon every spectator who could understand anything of the physical and intellectual force involved. Mr. Elaine's rulings upon the com- plicated points of order so constantly arising under our system of parliamentary law, and artfully thrust upon every Speaker, by rivals in his own party as well as in the opposition, had all the delightfulness of the solution of a difficult problem in logic or mathematics. The manner in which he repeatedly brought order out of chaos, or cut the House free from some apparently hope- less snarl, with a dozen Gordian knots in it, by a few sweeping strokes, right and left, with his keen mental blade, and started business forward with a grand rush often drew a ripple of applause from the whole House and the galleries, the more so that he never seemed to pose for such recogni- tion. Most Speakers are carefully coached, either openly or on the sly, by the subordinates around them at the desk, but Mr. Elaine's knowledge of the manual, as well of the name and antecedents of every member before him, seemed to be instinc- tive, and he was better fitted to give than to receive information on any such points. His feats in this particular cannot be understood without reference to the marvelous memory and the IO8 LIFE OF JAMES G. ELAINE. thoroughness of application to the work before him, which are necessarily mentioned so often in writing about him. As he had prepared for his first editorial work, by mastering the important contents of his journal for years previously, so it is probable that he prepared for the Speakership by almost committing to memory, the Digest and rules and the membership list of the three succes- sive Congresses in which he was Speaker. His grip on the order of business and the exact bearings of a complicated tangle of amendments and cross -motions, was equally marvelous. Though of inferior importance, his physical qualifications are not unworthy to be mentioned in the same breath. He looked as if fitted by- nature for his station. His dexterity and quick- ness made it almost amusing to see him count the House on a rising vote, and country visitors stared with wonder at the splintered trench in the hard desk-lid, carved with the gavel, backed by his sinewy wrist, at each annual session. Above all, were his fairness and anxiety to do right. With- out a sign of weakness or cowardice, he con- ceded to every member, and every faction, the same courtesy and the same due meed of recog- nition. Personally, he was on friendly terms with the leaders of the Democratic minority, for his par- liamentary wrangles with Mr. Randall, Mr. Cox and others, though he often turned the laugh upon them by the brightness and wittiness of his THE BRILLIANT SPEAKER. IOQ retorts, were of a nature not to leave a sting behind. It was sharp give-and-take, while it lasted, but for himself, he asked no odds, and he took no unfair advantages. He never used the great weight of his position, as could so easily have been done, to bear down any member, however weak and friendless, unless that member had made him- self an intolerable nuisance, and the whole House sympathized with its presiding officer in suppres- sing him. Still more wonderful, Mr. Elaine preserved amity with the leaders of his own party upon the floor, who were, in some sense, his rivals, keeping the balance of power with them and among them, without drawing their resentment upon him- self. On occasion he showed that he was a leader, and not a follower, by taking a vigorous stand to oppose the faction, to which he then first gave the name of " Stalwart," who pushed on the measure, his wisdom knew to be extreme, in the " Bill to protect electors," better known as the Force Bill, giving President Grant the right to suspend the writ of habeas corpus at pleasure in the Southern States, and to use martial law in suppressing the Ku Klux Klan. Foreseeing that the liberty-loving sentiment of the North, especially in the " doubtful States," would be repelled by this excessive -stretch of arbi- trary power, Mr. Blaine, not content with oppos- ing it in caucus, deliberately courting the risk and cost of such an unusual step, came down from HO LIFE OF JAMES (1. BLAIM . the Speaker's chair, and threw his influence upon the floor against the adoption of the bill. The after-cost to him through many years was indeed great, although President Grant tacitly admitted the weight of his argument by soon after refusing the aid of the army to Governor Ames, of Missis- sippi. All this added, however, to Mr. Elaine's popu- larity with men whose good esteem is worth hav- ing, and after his party had been washed into a minority by a tidal wave caused partly by not fully adopting the moderation he advised, his leave-taking of the chair was an extraordinary scene. So far was it from being a manifestation of triumph by the party which was to elect his suc- cessor, that it was rather an occasion of deep feeling over the loss of a presiding officer who was able, impartial and well-liked, and who had conferred marked dignity and lustre on the place. Mr. Elaine, at 12 o'clock noon on the day of the dissolution of that Congress, delivered the usual valedictory of the session and his term of office, in one of the five minute speeches which he knows so well how to adapt to the occasion and the audience, and then, declaring the House adjourned, brought down his gavel hard and let it fall from his practised hand. Following is the record of his closing address : Mr. Elaine said : " Gentlemen : I close with this hour a six years' service as Speaker of the House THE BRILLIANT SPEAKER. I II of Representatives a period surpassed in length by but two of my predecessors, and equaled by only two others. The rapid mutations of per- sonal and political fortune in this country have limited the great majority of those who have occu- pied this chair to shorter terms of office. " It would be the gravest insensibility to the hon- ors and responsibilities of life not to be deeply touched by so signal a mark of public esteem as that which I have thrice received at the hands of my political associates. I desire in this last moment to renew to them, one and all, my thanks and my gratitude. "To those from whom I differ in my party rela- tions the minority of this House I tender my acknowledgements for the generous courtesy with which they have treated me. By one of those sudden and decisive changes which distinguish popular institutions, and which conspicuously mark a free people, that minority is transformed in the ensuing Congress to the governing power of the House. However it might possibly have been under other circumstances, that event neces- sarily renders these words my farewell to the Chair. "The Speakership of the American House of Representatives is a post of honor, of dignity, of power, of responsibility. Its duties are at once complex and continuous ; they are both onerous and delicate ; they are performed in the broad 112 LIFE OF JAMES G. ELAINE. light of day, under the eye of the whole people, subject at all times to the closest observation, and always attended with the sharpest criticism. I think no other official is held to such instant and such rigid accountability. Parliamentary 7 rulings in their very nature are peremptory ; almost abso- lute in authority and instantaneous in effect. They cannot always be enforced in such a way as to win applause or secure popularity ; but I am sure that no man of any party who is worthy to fill this chair will ever see a dividing line between duty and policy. "Thanking you once more, and thanking you cordially, for the honorable testimonial you have placed on record to my credit, I perform my only remaining duty in declaring that the Forty-third Congress has reached its constitutional limit, and that the House of Representatives stands adjourned without day." So far from dispersing, as Mr. Elaine stepped lightly down from the rostrum, the crowded assem- blage, floor and galleries, rose, and greeted him with repeated salvos of applause, running in waves from side to side, with almost delirious cheering, clapping of hands, and waving of hand- kerchiefs. Fully five minutes, it seemed, he was detained, bowing and acknowledging, with emotion, this tribute to the record he had made, and for full half an hour there poured toward his stand- ing place, at the clerk's desk, a constant stream THE BRILLIANT SPEAKER. i i 5 of members and citizens, anxious to press his hand and express in words the admiration and regret already shown in signs. None who were there can forget the impression made by this scene. His parliamentary decisions live in print, and have been quoted as authority, in foreign lands as well as in this, but the gracefulness, eloquence and wit with which they are delivered, and his whole conduct of the business of the House, through six years of a 'great and trying period, can only be left to the memory of those who were actual spectators. CHAPTER IX. DARKER DAYS. .To the period of Mr. Elaine's triumphal success as Speaker of the House was to succeed a brief one which, unhappily, afforded an almost total contrast of gloom and adverse circumstance. But to those who reflect, it will show his innate greatness of mind and heart, perhaps even more strongly displayed than in the flush of his success. If it be not pedantic to quote, it might be said that he had taken for his motto, " Ne cede malis, sed contra audentior ito! " His wide and well-earned popularity was apparently to be obscured, at least so far as any benefit to him was concerned. Instead of friendly regards from both parties, the Democ- racy were to be more stirred up against him than they were against the extremest Radicals, while he was cruelly assailed from the rear by a cross- fire from personal factions, which, while they hated each other, hated him still worse for his towering eminence as a presidential candidate ; finally, it seemed as if the stars in their courses were fight- ing against him, when the midsummer sun struck Jiim prostrate at the crisis of his career, upon the steps of his house of prayer. 116 DARKER DAYS. 117 It is almost painful to write of this portion of his life, so full is it of manifestations of human malice and depravity against him, some of which still survive; and the story is relieved only by Mr. Elaine's manly and courageous bearing, under all the tempests which assailed his prospects, and that which was dearer than life to him his unspotted good name. To fully explain the causes of the position in which Mr. Elaine found himself, it must be remem- bered what kind of a majority it was which the Democracy sent to the House of Representatives for the first time since the war. The lenity which Mr. Elaine had bravely advised toward the South, the withdrawal of the last vestiges of that military control which he saw would not be supported by the sentiment of the North, had left the old leaders of the South free to regain power, by intimidating and "counting out," the negro vote. They came back to Congress full of the ideas which had prevailed before 1861, added to and embittered by the memory of their disastrous appeal to arms. They found a number of allies from the Northern States ready to meet and greet them, the usual Republican majority from that section being diminished by scandals in the civil administration of the government, for the exist- ence of which, or the busy stirring-up they received in the interests of a particular candidate for the Presidency, Mr. Elaine was in no wise Il8 LIFE OF JAMKS (1. HIAINE. responsible. The Southerners naturally thought old times had revived for them ; that they could dominate their Northern associates as of yore, and with their cooperation guide the whole coun- try into any policy they chose. The extraordinary number of ex-officers of the Rebel army in both branches of Congress, caused the phrase " the Rebel brigadiers " to become a by-word in speak- ing of their- action. They expected to redress all the "wrongs" they had suffered, to nullify all the legislation of the war, and as many as possible of its results, and with the fulcrum of a solid South (an ominous expression then first heard), to gain the Presidency, and sway the whole Union. Unseemly notes of triumph were heard from the hot heads among them, such as " the Confederacy is in the saddle again." Their ill-gotten triumph was abused in many ways, as by turning out crippled Union soldiers employed about the Capitol, and putting in former wearers of the gray, and the loyal men and Republicans seemed too dispirited to resent these insults to their cause. Mr. Elaine, who naturally became the leader of that almost "forlorn hope," the minority in the House, saw that something must be done to rouse his party and the country from apathy, and to set the full results of the expected triumph of a Solid South over a divided North, in the proper light. To do this it was necessary for him to perform DARKER DAYS. 119 the trying manoeuvre known in military parlance as "drawing the enemy's fire," a dangerous ser- vice not attempted for bravado, but to learn the position and intentions of the foe, and make him betray the nature and armament of his force. Occasions were soon supplied by the over- weening confidence and almost insolence of the majority. One of the most cherished notions of the re-united ex-Confederate and Copperhead Dem- ocracy was what was known as General Amnesty, or the sweeping repeal of all the political disabil- ities imposed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, upon those who, having once taken the oath of allegiance as a civil or military officer of the United States, or any State, had engaged in rebellion or given aid or comfort to rebels. This vry mild punishment of treason, as Mr. Elaine showed in his masterly and exhaustive argument upon it, had been further alleviated by general acts of limitation, and by special acts for the relief of individuals, until little or nothing o remained. It only applied, in the first instance, to about eighteen thousand men in the South. The first relief bill passed, removed the disability from 15/8 citizens of the South, and the next bill from no less than 3526 at one swoop. A constant stream of smaller bills benefitting one or more individuals succeeded, the Republicans having all the time two-thirds majority in both branches, I2O LIFE OF JAMES G. HI. AIM . and finally, in May, 1872, a general law was adopted, removing their disabilities from all persons except members of the 36th and 3/th Congresses, officers in the m-ilitary, judicial, and nnval service of the United States, heads of Departments, and foreign ministers of the United States. The relief of individuals still continued, and in no instance, save one, was relief refused upon the presentation of a respectful petition, which had become requisite by custom, and in no instance, save one, was there other than a unan- imous vote. Not content with all this, the " brigadiers " were intent upon blotting out the last vestige of pun- ishment for treason from the statute book, and wished to throw the pearl of citizenship at the feet of those who spurned it, and still gloried in open defiance of the Government. They attempted to put their action on the ground of " magnanimity," not seeming to see that there was no magnanim- ity in a set of men extending pardon to themselves, when by the strange fluctuations of politics, they found themselves well nigh supreme in the Gov- ernment they had fought to overthrow. Mr. Blaine saw the opportunity. The courage and eloquence which he displayed in meeting it will be referred to further on. At this point an outline may be given of the course which he pursued. Shoulder to shoulder with James A. Garfield, a DARKER DAYS. 121 man of equal kindliness and conservatism, but who, like him, never confounded those qualities with neglect of duty, Mr. Elaine withstood the too confident advance of the Democratic phalanx, over the trampled memories, gains and glories of the war, just as he had withstood the advocates of the Force Bill. He moved to except from the oper- ation of any general amnesty, " Jefferson Davis, late president of the so-called Confederate States," and also to require that all those availing them- selves of the benefit of the proposed act should take the oath of allegiance in some Federal court. The reasons for the second proviso were obvious : those for the first were given in one of his most earnest speeches. He said that careful investiga- tion, made at his request, had showed that there were still under disabilities about 325 ex-officers of the army, 295 of the navy, with enough under the other categories in the act of 1872 to make about 750 in all. To none of these, so far as he knew, was there any objection, save one, and he went on, with his usual easy ascent, to a climax of crushing force, that he did not aim to except Jefferson Davis because that person was, as he had been called, the head and front of the Rebellion ; on that score the ex-President was no more nor less guilty than thousands of -others already amnested ; probably he was less efficient as an enemy of the United States, and far more useful as a disturber of the counsels of the Confederacy than most of them. 122 LIFE OF JAMES G. BLAINE. But he ought to be excepted on the ground, that he was the author, " knowingly, deliberately, guiltily and willfully, of the gigantic murders and crimes of Andersonville." Reference to this fearful prison-pen at once aroused intense excitement, but Mr. Elaine con- tinued, while the faces of the ex-Confederate leaders paled with rage, as they understood how they were driven to the defensive, that he had read of the historic horrors of past times, but that before God, measuring his words, he could declare that neither the deeds of Alva in the Low Countries, nor the massacre of St. Bartholemew's, nor the thumbscrews and engines of torture of the Spanish Inquisition, began to compare in atrocity with the hideous crime of Andersonville. He was here met with a storm of mingled applause and indig- nant protest, but his preparation had been as thorough as usual, and he went on with pitiless* severity, quoting from the testimony of Southern witnesses and official records, nothing extenuating, nor setting down aught in malice, and wound up with this fiery sentence: "I hear it said, '\Ve will lift Mr. Davis again into great consequence by refusing amnesty.' That is not for me to consider ; I only see before me, when his name is presented, a man who, by the wink of his eye, by a wave of his hand, by a nod of his head, could have stopped the atrocity at Andersonville. Some of us had kinsmen there, most of us had friends DARKER DAYS. 123 there, all of us had countrymen there, and in the name of those kinsmen, friends and countrymen, I here protest, and shall with my vote protest, against calling back and crowning with the honors of full American citizenship the man who organ- ized that murder." The Southern members hastily consulted together, and next day put forward Benjamin H. Hill, of Georgia, to answer the champion of the Republicans. In many respects, this was the best choice they could have made. The Georgians are often called the " Yankees of the South," and are supposed to be cooler in temper, more business-like and abler to cope in sagacity with their Northern brethern, than the citizens of the other cotton states. Mr. Hill was not a "brigadier," but had been a member of the Confederate Senate, and, it was believed, of rather a conservative stripe. He was a forcible, even eloquent, speaker, and a man of wide information and experience in affairs. It has been said, both by those who approved Mr. Elaine's bold course and those who deplored it, that it was a mistake for the Southern leaders to attempt any reply to him ; that if they had only remained silent his speech would have failed of all effect, and he would have been left in the position of a foiled disturber of the peace. This notion, unjust to Mr. Elaine, proceeds on an inadequate knowledge of the facts in the case. 124 LIFE OK JAMKS G. ELAINE. If the Southern leaders had entertained no sinister designs upon the Government, if they had made no exaggerated promises to their people at home, if they had been wholly sincere in their professions of renewed devotion to the Union, they might, indeed, have preserved a lofty silence under all that Mr. Blaine could say. But none knew better than he that to keep silence was to them impossi- ble, and he was determined that they should speak out frankly what was in their minds and hearts. Their position, for one thing, would have been wholly illogical. They were determined to carry " in the centennial year," as they were fond of saying, an act of amnesty which should actually drag into full citizenship men who, like Robert Toombs, publicly spat upon and reviled the prof- fered gift. Mr. Blaine tendered them an act of amnesty with only the two provisos above spoken of, one excepting Jeff. Davis, the other requir- ing the oath of allegiance. To justify their rejec- tion of this offer, it became absolutely necessary for them to defend Davis from the charges brought against him, and in so doing they revealed their whole doctrine and belief about the Civil War and its results. Moreover, their people at home would not have been satisfied with any policy of silence. Few or none of the Southern Congressmen would have dared to face their constituents after allowing such a speech as that of the "Maine Yankee" to go unanswered. DARKER DAYS. 125 First, Mr. S. S. Cox, on the part of the North- ern Democrats, opened the attack with a burst of wit and raillery, like a skirmish of light horse, and then Mr. Hill advanced in massive column, like Pickett at Gettysburg. The line which he took justified all Mr. Elaine's expectations. It was a general assault upon the North. Not content with arguing that Jefferson Davis was never proven guilty of complicity with Winder and Wirz, Mr. Hill went on to argue that the suf- ferings at Andersonville, Belle Isle and Libbey were due to the unreasonable refusal of the Federal Government to exchange prisoners, and still more that, the Confederate prisoners at Elmira and elsewhere, were treated quite as badly or worse ; that they were vaccinated with impure virus, crowded into pest houses to die and buried in trenches. He wound up by inveighing against the "'higher law' fanaticism that never kept a pledge nor obeyed a law," and by inviting the men of the North to join with those of the South against those who had " denounced the Union as a ' covenant with death and a league with hell,' ' evidently meaning the old Aboli- tionists and their successors in the Republican party. The next day, January 12, 1876, Mr. Garfield, with a thoroughness of preparation resembling that of Mr. Blaine, delivered one of his grand speeches. It was a complete vindication of the 126 LIFE OF JAMES G. ELAINE. position of the Republican party on the question of amnesty. Bringing back the argument from the wide range which Mr. Hill had given it to the exact question before the House, Mr. Garfield showed, from official testimony, nearly all from Southern sources, that Jefferson Davis personally sent the infamous Winder to Andersonville, and obstinately sustained him there in all his actions, against the protests of the humane officers, sur- geons, inspectors and newspapers of the South. Turning to the question of Elmira, he cried, "The lightning is our witness ! " and showed the despatches that had poured in upon him in answer to the infamous charges, of course made upon hearsay, contained in Mr. Hill's speech. Finally, he proved that the alleged refusal of the Federal authorities to exchange prisoners was caused by the refusal of the Confederates to recognize the brave negroes fighting in the armies of the Union as entitled to the rights of civilized warfare. Mr. Blaine followed in a summing-up of what had been established. He humorously remarked that the gentleman from Georgia reminded him of Horace Greeley's description of the difficulties of a militia general on parade on Broadway : "he tries to keep step to the music of the Union, and dodge his fire-eating constituency in Georgia." He disposed of Mr. Cox by citing a speech of that gentleman during the war, in which he had spoken of the " inhumane, barbarous, horrible treatment DARKER DAYS. 127 inflicted upon our soldiers held as prisoners by the rebels," and said that the latter had "made brutes and fiends of themselves." Turning upon Mr. Hill, he read with vehemence a resolution introduced in the Confederate Senate in October, 1862, by "Senator Hill, of Georgia," providing that every person pretending to be a soldier or officer of the United States who should be cap- tured on the soil of the Confederate States, should be presumed to have come with intent to incite insurrection and abet murder, and, unless he could prove the contrary, should suffer death ; also an act, reported by the same gentleman, for inflicting the penalty of death upon every officer command- ing negro or mulatto troops in arms against the Confederate States. He demanded what t these meant, to which there was, of course, no reply. Before closing, Mr. Elaine, with his usual chivalric generosity, resented a remark of Mr. Hill's, which seemed to reflect upon the President, and rebuked him for saying in effect that Jefferson Davis was no more responsible for Winder and Wirz than General Grant for McDonald and Joyce, when, in fact, the President had lately made his famous memorandum, " Let no guilty man escape." When he closed, there was little more to be said for or againt Andersonville, with its dead-line, its treeless desert open to the sun, its single stag- nant stream, its bloodhounds, and the Florida artillery ranged in . line to fire upon the stockade 128 LIFE OF JAMES G. BLAINE. if General Sherman's army came within seven miles distance. The next day, the i4th, Mr. Blaine gave a little exhibition of that parliamentary skill which has made part of his fame, and also rendered him, while he remained in the House, something of a terror to other occupants of the Speaker's chair, and to the ill-led, undisciplined Democratic majority which he confronted. It had been attempted to force through the General Amnesty bill without debate, but it failed for want of a two-thirds vote. This gave Mr. Blaine, although in the minority, the right to move to reconsider, and to announce his intention of offering an amendment for which, he said, his side would vote. All the debate was founded upon this motion. He finally asked unanimous consent that his substitute might be considered, with the privilege to both parties of offering amendments. Eager to signify their resentment toward him, the Democrats shouted objections, and it was thought that Mr. Blaine was for once disconcerted. They forgot that he still had complete control of his motion to recon- sider, on which no action had been taken, and with a smile, he withdrew it, and with it, all chance of continuing the debate or reviving "general amnesty" for that session, leafing the Democrats, as it were, gasping with surprise. So ended the great debate. One very similar ensued in the Senate in March, 1879, when both DARKER DAYS. I 29- Mr. Elaine and Mr. Hill had been promoted to that body by their respective states. The question, then, was over the exclusion of Jefferson Davis by name from the benefits of the pension bill for the survivors of the Mexican war, and it will be remembered that the late Senator Chand- ler, of Michigan, was aroused by it to deliver that five minutes' speech of burning eloquence, every \vord of which seemed to come straight from his indignant heart, and which forever fixed the place of Jefferson Davis in all rightful public opinion. It was a tribute to the tone and temper in which these eminent men, the regretted Senator from Georgia, as well as Mr. Elaine, conducted this very trying discussion, that it was no bar to their afterwards becoming the closest personal friends. At the time, the effect of the debate was most pronounced. The Republicans and loyal men of the North (whose letters of approval poured in upon their advocate) , plucked up spirit when they found that they need not tamely submit to the revived arrogance of the South. The represen- tatives of the latter section almost unconsciously took a more considerate tone and abated some of the worst of their pretensions. Nevertheless, they were intensely embittered against Mr. Elaine ; though, if they had but known it, he had done them an important service in teaching them the difficult lesson of moderation for the future. To over- throw, either in general debate, or in the tactics of I3O LIFE OF JAMES G. BLAINE. legislation, an adversary so thoroughly armed at all points, they discovered, after very few attempts, to be impossible. They studied out a more terrible revenge, which it would be easier to look back upon with calmness were it not necessary to think that rivals of Mr. Blaine almost at the head of the official household of his own party, aided and abetted it in the hope of clearing the way for their own futile ambition. It was an era of investigations. Imitating the Credit Mobilier inquiry which Mr. Blaine had moved for his own vindication while Speaker, the Democrats in the House, eager to justify their charges of corruption against the Republican party, set out on a wild hunt for something wrong in every branch of the public service, or as it was sometimes expressed, cast a drag-net which they hoped would bring to light some piece of scandal that would benefit their cause. Every committee of the House became an investigating committee, and instead of confining itself to work upon legis- lation, summoned and examined, at great expense, every witness they thought might serve their purpose. A certain class of newspapers and their correspondents entered eagerly into the work, set the committees and their spies on new trails, and published every fact and rumor in exaggerated form. Everybody was investigated, from heads of departments to private citizens who had formed a pool to buy real estate, DARKER DAYS, It is needless to say that, up to this time, no breath of suspicion had touched Mr. Elaine. He had come through the troublous years during and after the war, when so many fell into temptation, without even a smell of fire upon his garments. Not a whisper was heard against his fame as an honest and disinterested legislator. Those who knew him best in his own State were most con- fident of his integrity and proudest of his record. But the National Convention of 1876 was rapidly approaching. The waves of enthusiasm for the candidacy of Elaine were already rolling high in Pennsylvania and other great States, and they were not diminished by the humiliation he had inflicted on the towering pride of the Southern leaders in Congress. "Reform" candidates, "machine" candidates, and candidates of all kinds were at a discount compared with the people's candidate whose name was upon every tongue. It was necessary to dispose of him in some way, and the baffled brigadiers were easily persuaded to turn upon him one or more of those mud machines their investigating committees. Representative J. Proctor Knott, of Kentucky, was pushed on by both these elements, to under- take the task of demolishing Mr. Elaine in repu- tation and prospects. The time was selected shortly before the meeting of the Convention, so that he might be aspersed, and yet have no oppor- tunity to answer. The charges were first spread I IU <>|. I AMI v ,,. 1U.AIM . through the public press in the form of vague innuendo and surmise, so that it was almost impossible to fix upon anything definite to contra- dict, while yet the public mind was put on the alert to receive something further, and hints we- re given that astonishing revelations would shortly be made. By degrees the allegations narrowed down to some degree of definiteness. It was not charged that Mr. Blaine was a perjurer, a defaulter, a swindling contractor, or an oppressor of the poor ; his moral character in private life was admitted to be above reproach ; but the head ami front of his offending was that he had held stock or bonds of certain Western railways, and it was charged that he was unduly favored in his investments, on account of his official position. The first accusations of this kind brought to his notice were "like a dewdrop from the lion's mane, shaken to air." It was published that Mr. Blaine had been mixed up in a transaction with Thomas A. Scott, then president of the Union Pacific Railroad Company, by which he had received, in some way, for some reason not stated, $64,000 in cash, through the banking house of Morton. Bliss & Co. Rising in his place, on April 24th, 1876, Mr. Blaine not only denied the story in all its Protean forms, but exhibiting telegrams from the treasurer and presiderft of the Union Pacific, from Morton, Bliss & Co., and from Thomas A. Scott, proving its utter falsity. He DARKER DAYS. 133 then went on, voluntarily, to explain his connec- tion with the Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad Company, on which the charge had partly been founded, showing that he had invested as any private citizen or business man has a right to invest his funds, and instead of a gainer had been a heavy loser by the venture. He concluded in these words : " I am now, Mr. Speaker, in the fourteenth .year of a not inactive service in this Hall. I have taken and given blows. I have no doubt said many things in the heat of debate which I would now gladly recall. I have no doubt, given votes, which in fuller light I would gladly change. But I have never done anything in my public career, for which I could be put to the faint- est "blush in any presence, or for which I can- not answer to my constituents, my conscience and the great Searcher of hearts." On the ist of May Mr. Elaine was called upon to deny another fabrication, which had appeared in that consistently hostile sheet, the New York Herald. It was to the effect that he had received as a gift, certain bonds of the Kansas Pacific Railroad, that there were witnesses of the transfer to him, and that he was concerned in a suit about them in the courts of Kansas. Mr. Elaine again went to the trouble of obtaining letters from all these pretended "witnesses," Messrs. Stewart and Riddle, prominent lawyers in Washington, and Messrs. Gibson and Macfarland, newspaper cor- 134 LIFE OF JAMES G. BLAINK. respondents, expressly denying that they knew of any such affair ; and General Thomas Ewing wrote from Lancaster, O., that the Mr. Blaine suing in Kansas was John E. Blaine, brother of the Ex- Speaker, an early settler in the state, who had bought stock in the Kansas Pacific before his elder brother was even nominated for Congress. Mr. Blaine concluded his personal explanation thus : " Having now noticed the two that have been so extensively circulated, I shall refrain from calling the attention of the House to any others that may be invented. To quote the language of another, ' I do not propose to make my public life a per- petual and uncomfortable flea-hunt, in the vain effort to run down stories which have no basis in truth, which are usually anonymous, and whose total refutation brings no punishment to those who have been guilty of originating them.' ' The very next day a resolution was introduced in the House to investigate an alleged purchase by the Union Pacific Railroad Company for a price "in excess of their actual or market value" of certain bonds of the Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad. Mr. Tarbox, of Massachusetts (who defeated and succeeded "Ben." Butler), personally assured Mr. Frye that the resolution was not aimed at his colleague, Mr. Blaine, and it was adopted without objection. Almost the moment the inquiry began it was apparent that it was aimed wholly at Mr. Blaine. He did not DARKER DAYS. 135 complain of this. The gentleman from whom he had previously received telegrams appeared in person and fully vindicated him. He asked only for an early report to the House and the country to which he was entitled in justice ; but with evident malice the proceedings were allowed to drag and drag until, when all the witnesses pos- sible had been called, the sub-committee of the committee on the Judiciary, who had the matter in charge, suddenly turned, under the pretext of a general "drag-net" resolution adopted in the previous January, to investigate a transaction of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, on a newspaper report that there had been some effort by Mr. Elaine to procure a share in that road for a friend in Boston. While this particular mud- machine was at work, a masked battery of the same kind in another part of the Capitol, known as the Real Estate Pool Committee, was desper- ately endeavoring to find ammunition for a third assault on the Maine statesman, without giving him the slightest notice or opportunity to defend himself. An exposure of Mr. Elaine's private correspond- ence was promised, and some witnesses from Boston, named Fisher and Mulligan, were sum- moned to Washington to disclose all they knew. The lovers of scandal, for the sake of scandal, were almost crazed with delight at the prospect of the revelations. The whole phase of the question I. IFF. OF J.\Mi:s G. BLAINE. was changed, however, by the fact that Mr. Elaine possessed himself of the letters and of a memo- randum, prepared by one of the witnesses, giving an abstract of them. Many of Mr. Blaine's friends thought for the day that he had obtained control of the letters to prevent their publication, and were inclined to believe that he had committed a very grave blunder. The sub-committee made a demand upon Mr. Elaine for his letters. He produced in reply the opinion of two distinguished counsel, the one a Republican, the other a Democrat, ex-Juclge Black and Hon. Matt. H. Carpenter, that the letters were his own, and that no power could rightfully force him to give them up. The com- mittee did not venture to provoke a contest with him on the legal question, or even to report his refusal to the House, but of course the air was at once filled with the most Outrageous slanders as to what the letters contained, and they were made, if possible, to do more mischief by their disap- pearance than by their unjustifiable production. It was now the 5th of June, and Mr. Blaine's enemies began to triumph in the hope of his easy defeat at Cincinnati. On that day he electrified his persecutors and the country by producing and reading in the House of Representatives, with scathing comment, the very letters upon which so much reliance had been placed. This has been described as an act of bravado, but no one can DARKER DAYS. 137 read the faithful report of what he said upon the occasion, dismissing all prejudice from mind, without being impressed with the accent of deep feeling, the heart-beats of a proud and honest man, unfairly driven to bay, which seem to throb in every word. He described the manner in which he had been pursued by "investigations," culminating in the Mulligan episode and its sequel. He said that with clue respect to the powers of this House, he defied them to compel him to pro- duce the letters. His right to control" his private correspondence was as sacred as his rights over the nurture of his children. But, ready for any extremity of contest or conflict in behalf of so sacred a right, he was not afraid to show the letters. "Thank God Almighty," he cried, "I am not ashamed to show them. There they are," brandishing the package in the faces of the astounded Democrats, while the House and the crowded galleries shook with thunders of applause from his excited friends. "There is the very original package. And with some sense of humiliation, with a mortification that I do not pre- tend to conceal, with a sense of outrage which I think any man in my position would feel, I invite the confidence of forty- four millions of my countrymen while I read those letters from this desk." It took some time for the officers of the House and the Speaker pro tempore (unfortunately the 138 LIFE OF JAMF.S ('.. ULAINE. Speaker, the dignified and respected Michael C. Kerr, was now suffering from the illness which afterward proved fatal), to bring order out of the confusion which ensued. The letters, full of per- sonal matters of Mr. Blaine's business difficulties and other confidential, but never criminating details, were then read by him. It is unnecessary to repeat them here. Fair-minded men have long since agreed in an opinion of their harmlessness. The few sentences in the whole collection which, detached from the context, twisted and perverted by malicious minds and tongues, could bear the slightest evil import, have had the changes rung upon them ad nauseam. It must be remembered that these letters were picked out of correspon- dence extending over fifteen years. "The man did his worst, the very worst he could," as Mr. Blaine justly said, "out of the most intimate busi- ness correspondence of my life. I ask, gentle- men, if any of you, and I ask it with some feeling, can stand a severer scrutiny of, or more rigid investigation into your private correspondence ? That was the worst he could do." A still more cutting exposure was in store for the ex-Confederates and their allies. Only one witness was lacking for Mr. Blaine to do what can so seldom be done by the accused, affirmatively prove his innocence. Mr. Josiah Caldwell, who had knowledge of the exact transactions in con- troversy, was traveling in Europe. Both Mr. DARKER DAYS. 139 Blaine and the committee were seeking his address, the one to fully vindicate himself, the other in the hope that something- damaging might yet be developed. After the reading of the letters was completed, Mr. Blaine turned upon Mr. Knott, the chairman of the Judiciary committee, and demanded whether the committee had sent a despatch to Mr. Caldwell. Mr. Knott faltered : he said, " Judge Hunton and myself have both endeavored to get Mr. Caldwell's address, and have not yet got it." " Has the gentleman from Kentucky received a despatch from Caldwell?" asked Mr. Blaine, with visibly rising indignation. " I will explain that directly," replied Mr. Knott. " I want a categorical answer." " I have received a dispatch purporting to be from Mr. Caldwell." " You did ? " " How did you know I got it ? " queried Mr. Knott. " When did you get it? " was the sharp response. " I want the gentleman from Kentucky to answer when he got it." "Answer my question first." "I never heard of it until yesterday." " How did you hear it ? " " I heard you got a despatch last Thursday morning at eight o'clock, from Josiah Caldwell, 9 140 LIFE OK JA.MF.S G. ELAINE. completely and absolutely exonerating me from this charge," cried Mr. Blaine, with a blaze of wrath no longer repressed, "and," striding down the aisle and launching the full force of the accu- sation right in the faces of his would-be persecutors, " Y<>U IIAYi; sriTRKSSKI) IT!" The mere tone and gesture of the man would have carried away an audience less excited and wrought-up than the one that heard him, or one less devoted to fair play, than an assemblage of so many Americans. Taken altogether, with the whole occasion that had inspired it, and the pop- ularity of the orator who had assumed the aggres- sive so effectively, the sensation produced was something indescribable. Another wild storm of applause greeted the ex-Speaker. " I want the gentleman to answer," he persisted, with stern emphasis, and then after an ominous pause. " Does the gentleman from Kentucky decline to answer?" The Speaker pro tcmporc came to the rescue of his overwhelmed and speechless party associates, with the demand that order be restored and unauthorized persons removed from the floor of the hall. The contest was then renewed over Mr. Blame's motion that the suppressed despatch should be brought to light, and should be printed with the volume of the testimony taken by the committee. Hy every device of parliamentary tactics and DARKER DAYS. with the strength of their majority, the Democrats fought against this simple measure of justice, and were as firmly withstood by Mr. Elaine, contending almost single-handed for the prompt and timely vindication to which he was entitled. So far did he tower above his petty assailants, and so often did he seem almost to sweep them before him in the torrent of his just resentment, that it will be remembered Mr. John Young Brown, of Ken- tucky, was led, a few days later, June 9, to rise and inquire in a disgusted tone of the Speaker pro tern: " I want simply to know whether this is the American Congress - " " That is what I want to know," interjected Mr. Elaine, with his usual quickness. " Or a school in which we are merely pupils of the schoolmaster from Maine ? " " It is the most surprising American Congress that ever assembled," said the "schoolmaster from Maine," in a tone of frank explanation that again evoked the cheers and laughter that relieved the overstrained nerves of the immense audience, in which Mr. Elaine was probably the most self- possessed individual. The final result of these investigations was a negative instead of an affirmative acquittal of Mr. Elaine. There was a general feeling among men of all parties that it was unfair to drag the private correspondence of any man before the 142 LIFE OF JAMES G. BLAIXE. public, and that if such invasion of personal right were approved by the popular opinion of the country, it would lead to scandals innumerable, which in turn might be followed by tragedies the most deplorable. The American sense of fair play, which is always to be trusted, decided that a public man does not give up his private rights, and that among the sacred of private rights is the right of every man to control his own personal correspondence. After the Cincinnati Convention the investiga- tions simply died a natural death or were allowed to drop. The public opinion of the country was very decidedly against the whole proceeding, and the Democrats themselves, finding that they had been put into a false position by their leaders, became discontented at the course of Mr. Knott and his associates. The best elements in the party called for a halt in the proceedings. The result of the combined attempt to put down the people's favorite, and keep him down, would have been a complete failure, except for an occur- rence which no one for a moment expected. On the close and oppressive Sunday before the nominating Convention met, Mr. Elaine, despite the strain to which he had been subjected, and which tested even his remarkable pJiysiquc to the utmost, went, according to his custom, to the Con- gregational Church, in Washington. The church faces South and in ascending the broad unshaded DARKER DAYS. 143 steps, in the full beams of an unseasonably torrid sun, Mr. Elaine, without warning, reeled and fell. He was quickly raised and carried back to his home, where he lay insensible, with all that match- less eloquence silenced, that vigor paralyzed, and, to the anxious eyes of friends, his life hanging in the balance during two days, while his rivals did their worst against his prospects at Cincinnati. The Convention was distracted between hopes and fears. Dr. D. W. Bliss (who afterwards at- tended President Garfield) soon pronounced his distinguished patient out of danger. Other re- ports were busily spread in the Convention. It was whispered about that even if the prospective standard-bearer escaped death, his mind would never be the same grand organ that it had been, a wholly baseless canard, which time has abund- antly refuted. Unfortunately it had its effect, in alarming some of the delegates, and though Gen- eral Logan, who was present from Illinois, gener- ously cried : "We will vote for his corpse if he dies," his friends met with their first great, bitter disappointment. None of his avowed rivals tri- umphed over the prostrate giant, but the " dark horse" policy resulted in the nomination of Mr. Hayes. Mr. Blaine received on the first ballot 285 votes, lacking 93 of the nomination. On the seventh ballot his vote rose to 345, or 33 less than a majority. When the news came of the Conven- 144 ' "'' '"' JAMF.S ('.. IU.AINE. tion's choice, he alone of the little group in his sick room, retained perfect composure, and after a slight exclamation of surprise, wrote the proper despatches of congratulation to the candidate, and thanks to his own supporters. It may be remarked, in passing, that the story that his sun-stroke saved him from further inves- tigation by Congress is cruelly and absurdly false. The investigations had spent themselves, and their promoters had taken care to do all in their power before the Convention met. His sudden attack of vertigo was an unmingled misfortune, first to his physical health at the time, and second to the devoted friends who had set their hearts upon his nomination. CHAPTER X. SECRETARY OF STATE. IT is a notable circumstance to which Mr. Elaine has often adverted, that upon first entering Con- gress he gained, by a series of coincidences, two firm and valued friends, the regard of the three for one another never afterwards suffering dimi- nution or a shadow of change. Upon standing up to be sworn in he found himself side by side with a Mr. Allison of Iowa, and a Mr. Garfield of Ohio, who, like himself, were entering upon a new experience. The three were entire strangers to one another. When the seats came to be drawn they found that they were again thrown in close proximity, almost within arm's length, near the centre aisle. They walked down from the Capi- tol together, on their way to their respective lodg- ings on the first day of their service, and if their conversation was not on such lofty themes as the reader might expect from their characters, it was on a topic that led more quickly to intimacy and good-humor the price and quality of board in over-crowded Washington. All were before many years talked of as Presidential possibilities ; one of them filled the high office and perished in it, and 145 146 INK "I J.\Mi:s <-. 111. AIM . another is now the Republican candidate. This never made them rivals. On the contrary, the grand qualities they had in common warm-heart- edness, fidelity, trustfulness drew them ever into firmer alliance, broken only by the sad death of the one. in the chief place in whose cabinet another of the three had been installed. Nearly all of Mr. Blaine's closer friends were surprised at his decision to accept the office of Secretary of State, and many regretted his con- clusion, abandoning, as he did, the brilliant career open to him in the Senate of the United States, where he could have remained, by repeated elec- tions, during the remainder of his life. It will be remembered that Mr. Garfield visited Washington in November after his election. In a quiet upper room in Mr. Blaine's Fifteenth street house, late in that month, Mr. Garfield and Mr. Blaine breakfasted together, and discussed, long and earnestly, the general situation. Mr. Blaine's family was still absent in New England. At this interview, Mr. Garfield with all the fervor and earnestness peculiar to his nature, tendered to the great Maine commoner the leading place in his cabinet. Mr. Blaine, taken by surprise at this unexpected offer, asked that time be given him for consideration. For nearly three weeks he bal- anced the subject in his mind, and consulted the few friends who were admitted into the charmed circle of his confidence ; and it may here be SECRETARY OF STATE. recorded, that, almost without exception, they urged him to decline the portfolio of the State Department, and remain in the Senate. The unusual friendship and intimacy which had existed for well nigh twenty years between Garfield and Elaine, their cordial confidence, and their belief in each others greatness and patriotism, may have had its influence no doubt did have its influence in determining Mr. Elaine's decision. The Secretaryship of State is not an office to be lightly refused; especially when the President of the nation is one who commands the respect and confidence of the whole people, as Mr. Gar- field unquestionably did. It should not be forgot- ten that the office has been filled by the greatest statesmen of the country. Thomas Jefferson was the first appointment; following him was Edmund Randolph, also of Virginia ; then came Timothy Pickering, of Massachusetts ; then John Marshall, of Virginia ; then James Madison, of Virginia ; next, another honored Virginian, James Monroe ; then John Ouincy Adams, and Henry Clay, of Kentucky, who, like Mr. Elaine, was not only a member, but three times Speaker of the House of Representatives, and subsequently a Senator ; then Martin Van Buren ; then Edward Livingston, Daniel Webster, John C. Calhoun, James Buch- anan; again Daniel Webster, Edward Everett, and William L. Marcy, of New York ; next came Lewis Cass, -of Michigan; then Jeremiah S. 1 "I- <!' JAMKS (;. r.l.AINK. lilack, William H. Sewarcl, and those of later date, whose names are familiar to the youngest reader. l ; ive of the statesmen here mentioned became the Chief Magistrates of the nation. Possibly the contemplation of this long line of distin- guished occupants of the office may have had some slight influence on Mr. Elaine's decision. At any rate, he accepted the offer with the same cordiality with which it had been made, and in due time he wrote to President Garfield the letter of acceptance as follows : " WASHINGTON, D. C., Dec. 20, 1880. " My Dear Garfield : "Your generous invitation to enter your cabinet as Secretary of State has been under consideration for more than three weeks. The thought had really never occurred to my mind, until at our last conference you presented it with such cogent arguments in its favor, and with such warmth of personal friendship in aid of your offer. I know that an early answer is desirable, and I have waited only long enough to consider the subject in all its bear- ings, and to make up my mind definitely and conclu- sively. I now say to you, in the same cordial spirit in which you have invited me, that I accept the position. It is no affectation for me to add that I make this decision, not for the honor of promotion it gives me in public, but because I think I can be useful to the country and to the party; useful to you as the responsible leader of the party, and the great head of the government. I am influenced, somewhat, perhaps, by the shower of letters I have received, urging me to accept, written to me in consequence of the mere unauthorized newspaper report, SECRETARY OF STATE. 149 that you had been pleased to offer me the place. While I have received these letters from all sections of the Union, I have been especially pleased, and even surprised, at the cordial and widely extended feeling in my favor throughout New England, where I had expected to encounter local jealousy, and, perhaps, rival aspirations. In our new relation, I shall give all that I am, and all that I can hope to be, freely and joyfully to your service. You need no pledges of my loyalty in heart and act. I should be false to myself did I not prove true, both to the great trust you confide to me, and to your own per- sonal and political fortunes in the present and the future. " Your administration must be made brilliantly suc- cessful, and strong in the confidence and pride of the people, not at all directing its energies for re-election, and yet compelling that result by the logic of events, and by the imperious necessities of the situation to that most desirable consummation. I feel, next to yourself, I can possibly contribute as much influence as any other man. I say this not from egotism or vain glory, but merely as a deduction from a plain analysis of the politi- cal forces which have been at work in the country for two years past, and which have been significantly shown in two great conventions. I accept it as one of the hap- piest circumstances connected with this affair, that in allying my political fortunes with yours, or, rather, for the time, merging mine in yours, my heart goes with my head, and that I cany to you, not only political support, but personal and devoted friendship. I can but regard it as somewhat remarkable, that two men of the same age, entering Congress at the same time, influenced by the same aims and cherishing the same principles, should never for a single moment, in our eighteen years of close intimacy, have had a word or coolness, and that our I5O I III. iK JAM MS (I. P.I.AINK. friendship has steadily groun witli our growth and strengthened with our strength. It is this fact that has lead me to the conclusion embodied in this letter, for, however, much, my dear Garfield, I might admire you as a statesman, I would not enter your cabinet if I did not believe in you as a man, and love you as a friend. " Faithfully yours, "JAMES G. BLAINE." The terrible tragedy of that unhappy second day of July, 1880, which is mentioned even now with a shudder, deprived the country at once of a great President and a great Secretary, who, had he remained in office, would undoubtedly have made for himself a name, second to none of those illus- trious ones recorded above. There was a confidence between Mr. Garfield and his chief cabinet adviser, such as rarely exists in official relationship, and nothing annoyed the President more than the attempt to hold Mr. Blaine responsible for every act of the adminis- tration. Under date of May 29, 1881, in a letter to a personal friend, in Mr. Garfield's own hand- writing, a letter which still exists, he used the fol- lowing words : "The attempt to shift the fight to Mr. Blaine's shoulders is as weak as it is unjust. The fact is, no member of the cabinet behaves with any more respect to the rights of his brother members than Mr. Blaine. It should be under- stood that the administration is not meddling with New York State politics ; it only defends itself when assailed." SECRETARY OF STATE. 153 One of the best corrections of the false ideas industriously spread of Mr. Elaine's policy while Secretary of State, in fact the very best, is afforded by a close study of his own words and acts, as opposed to the wild misrepresentations of his traducers. A project which, when it came from his original, inventive mind, attracted most hearty praise from all lovers of America and 'of peace, has been so industriously ridiculed and belittled since that time, that its gAnd scope and attrac- tiveness have been almost entirely obscured. This was the so-called Peace Congress, or general convention of delegates from the independent powers on the Western Continent, proposed to be held in the city of Washington, on the 24th day of November, 1882. The primary object, like that of the Congresses held in Europe, was to be the restoration and preservation of peace (war was then raging between Chili and Peru) among the nations of America, but of course there could be no doubt that the meeting face to face of the representatives of so many nations and climes, the free interchange of views, the expressions of the common hopes and aspirations of the New World, would tend to knit closer the ties uniting each to all, and to spread that fruitful conservator of peace, international commerce. How little there was in it of any thoughts of conquest or domination by the United States is witnessed by the form of the letter of invitation, which would 154 1J1 ' i: "' JAMKS C.. r.l.AlNE. deserve reproduction, if only as a masterly state paper. The follKnving copy was sent to our min- ister t<> the Argentine Republic: " DEPAKTMI.NT OF STATE, ) "WASHINGTON, November 29, 1881. j " SIR : The attitude of the United States with respect to the question of general peace on the American conti- nent is well known through its persistent efforts for years past to avert the evils of warfare, or, these efforts failing, to bring positive conflicts to an end through pacific counsels or the advocacy of impartial arbitration. " This attitude has been consistently maintained, and always with such fairness, as to leave no room for imput- ing to our government any motive, except the humane and disinterested one of saving the kindred states of the American continent from the burdens of war. The posi- tion of the United States as the leading Power of the New World, might well give to its Government a claim to authoritative utterance for the purpose of quieting discord among its neighbors, with all of whom the most friendly relations exist. Nevertheless, the good offices of this government are not, and have not at any time been tendered with a show of dictation or compulsion, but only as exhibiting the solicitous good-will of a common friend. " For some years past a growing disposition has been manifested by certain States of Central and South America to refer disputes affecting grave questions of international relationship and boundaries to arbitration rather than to the sword. It has been on several such occasions a source of profound satisfaction to the Government of the United States to see that this country is in a large meas- ure looked to by all the American Powers as their friend SECRETARY OF STATE. 155 and mediator. The just and impartial counsel of the President in such cases has never been withheld, and his efforts have been rewarded by the prevention of sanguin- ary strife or angry contention between peoples whom we regard as brethren. " The existence of this growing tendency convinces the President that the time is ripe for a proposal that shall enlist the good will and active co-operation of a,ll the States of the Western Hemisphere, both North and South, in the interest of humanity and for the common weal of Nations. He conceives that none of the Govern- ments of America can be less alive than our own to the dangers and horrors of a state of war, and especially of war between kinsmen. He is sure that none of the chiefs of Governments on the continent can be less sensitive than he is to the sacred duty of making every endeavor to do away with the chances of fratricidal strife. And he looks with hopeful confidence to such active assistance from them as will serve to show the broadness of our common humanity, and the strength of the ties which bind us all together as a great and harmonious system of American commonwealths. " Impressed by these views, the President extends to all the independent countries of North and South America an earnest invitation to participate in a general Congress, to be held in the city of Washington, on the 24th day of November, 1882, for the purpose of considering and dis- cussing the methods of preventing war between the Nations of America. He desires that the attention of the Congress shall be strictly confined to this one great object ; that its sole aim shall be to seek a way of perma- nently averting the horrors of cruel and bloody combat between countries, oftenest of one blood and speech, or the even worse calamity of internal commotion and civil 156 I. IKK >K JAMKS C. IM.AIN'K. strife ; that it shall regard the burdensome and far-reach- ing consequences of such struggles, the legacies of exhausted finances, of oppressive debt, of onerous taxa- tion, of ruined cities, of paraly/.cd industries, of devastated fields, of ruthless conscription, of the slaughter of men, of the grief of the widow and the orphan, of embittered resentments that long survive those who provoked them, and heavily afflict the innocent generations that come after. "The President is especially desirous to have it under- stood that, in putting forth this invitation, the United State's does not assume the position of counselling, or attempting, through the voice of the Congress, to counsel, any determinate solution of existing questions which may now divide any of the countries of America. Such questions cannot properly come before the Congress. Its mission is higher. It is to provide for the interests of all in the future, not to settle the individual differences of the present. For this reason especially the President has indicated a day for the assembling of the Congress so far in the future as to have good ground for hope that by the the time named the present situation on the South Pacific Coast will be happily terminated, and that those engaged in the contest ma}' take peaceable part in the discussion and solution of the general question affecting in an equal degree the well-being of all. " It seems also desirable to disclaim in advance any pur- pose on the part of the United States to prejudge the issues t< be presented to the Congress. It is far from the intent of this Government to appear before the Con- gress as in any sense the Protector of its neighbors or the predestined and necessary arbitrator of their disputes. The United States will enter into the deliberations of the Congress on the same footing as the other Powers rep re- SECRETARY OF STATE. 157 sented, and with the loyal determination to approach any proposed solution, not merely in its own interest, or with a view to asserting its own power, but as a single mem- ber among many co-ordinate and co-equal States. So far as the influence of this Government may be potential, it will be exerted in the direction of conciliating whatever conflicting interests of blood, or government or historical traditions may necessarily come together in response to a call embracing such vast and diverse elements. " You will present these views to the minister of Foreign Relations of the Argentine Republic, enlarging, if need be, in such terms as will readily occur to you, upon the great mission which it is within the power of the proposed Congress to accomplish in the interest of humanity, and upon the firm purpose of the United States to maintain a position of the most absolute and impartial friendship toward all. You will thereupon, in the name of the President of the United States, tender to His Excellency, the President of the Argentine Republic, a formal invita- tion to send two commissioners to the Congress, provided with such powers on behalf of their Government as will enable them to consider the questions brought before that body within the limit of submission contemplated by this invitation. The United States, as well as the other Powers, will, in like manner, be represented by two com- missioners, so that equality and impartiality will be amply secured in the proceedings of the Congress. " In delivering this invitation through the minister of Foreign Affairs, you will read this despatch to him and leave with him a copy, intimating that an answer is desired by this Government as promptly as the just con- sideration of so important a proposition will permit. " I am, etc., JAMES G. ELAINE." LIFE OF JAMES C. UI.AINE. After this, the reader is better prepared to judge of Mr. Blaine's "dangerous diplomacy," and the extent of his desire for a foreign war. The invitation, it is well known, was canceled and recalled after Mr. Elaine left the Cabinet, and it was perhaps as well that the plan which he had conceived should be left unexecuted, rather than tried abortively, without his presence and coun- sel to carry it to the full success for which he had hoped. Mr. Blaine's term as Secretary of State was brief indeed, but more crowded with events and distractions of the most trying nature than that of any of his predecessors except, perhaps, Mr. Seward. He could scarcely have been censured if the terrible event of which he was an eye- witness, and the distressing summer which o followed, had paralyzed his energies and made his public record blank. Yet it might almost be said, that one reading only the public record of that year would never imagine that the Secretary of State had been obliged to mourn the sufferings and death his cherished friend, the Chief Magis- trate, and turn from the funeral ceremonies to assist in starting a new and untried Administration upon its way.. No one can exaggerate what Mr. Elaine was to President Garfield, and to the country, through the " terrible months," July, August and Septem- ber, 1 88 1, and it would not be possible to SECRETARY OF STATE. 159 describe it fully. He stood between the two as the balance-wheel, if not the source of power, and saw to all emergencies, from the surroundings of the sick room to the meetings of the Cabinet. Few can have forgotten how he scattered the fogs, raised by the solemn muddle of medical terms in the bulletins, issued by the physicians, under the direction of Dr. Bliss, and how he bravely pre- pared the public mind for the worst, in his despatch to Minister Lowell in London, August 22d, at 1 1 P. M. That despatch contained the first truth that had been given to the public since the fatal shot was fired. It was like the flying open of a lantern on a dark and, alas! a hopeless night. With his nervous, strenuous way of stating facts, the Secretary referred briefly to the liquid food which the patient had been able to take that day, and continued: "But his general condition is serious, if not critical." The doctors had darkened counsel with words, and even resorted to prevari- cation, of course, "professionally." Mr. Blaine spoke plain English about what he thought the world ought to know. " He is very weak, exhausted and emaciated, not weighing over 125 or 130 pounds. His weight when wounded was from 205 to 210 pounds. His failure to regain strength is the one feature which gives special uneasiness and apprehension." After this presentation of vital facts, no person of sense was in danger of being taken by surprise when the worst occurred, I6O LIFE OF JAMES G. ELAINE. and the physicians' bulletins were thereafter dis- credited in waiting for what Mr. Elaine might say. One of the most urgent questions which Mr. Elaine encountered, in our foreign relations, was that of the inter-oceanic canals, proposed in Central America. On the 24th of June he issued a circular-letter to our representatives abroad, setting forth the settled objection of this Govern- ment to any concerted action of the European powers, for the purpose of guaranteeing the neutrality of such a canal, or determining the condition of its use, and furthermore calling attention to the paramount right and duty in this particular imposed on the United States by its treaty with the former Republic of New Granada, now Columbia, signed in 1846. The tragedy of the 2d of July postponed further action, but on the igth of November Mr. Elaine addressed to Mr. Lowell a letter, which awakened wide attention, instructing him to apply to the British Government for its consent to the mutual abrogation of certain clauses in the Clayton Bulwer treaty of April 19, 1850, which had become harmful and inappropriate in the time since elapsed. This treaty, as Mr. Elaine showed, vir- tually concedes to Great Britain the control of any inter-oceanic canal that may be constructed in Nicaragua, because, when it prohibits any fortifi- cations commanding the canal, or the use of military forces by land, it does not prohibit SECRETARY OF STATE. l6l any naval force (in which arm Great Britain possesses such preponderance), from coming near enough to dominate or be ready to seize the canal. He then pointed out that merely to hold the distant dependency of India, Great Britain had established a belt of posts half way round the globe, Gibraltar, Malta, and Cyprus, in the Mediterranean ; Egypt, Aden, and the island of Perim, which makes the Red Sea mare clausum. "It would," he said, "in the judgment of the President, be no more unreasonable for the United States to demand a share in these fortifi- cations, or their absolute neutralization, than for England to make the same demand in perpetuity from the United States with respect to the transit across the American continent." This point he illustrated, with great force and cogency, and then went on to speak of the canal under way at Panama, under French auspices. If the Clayton- Bulwer treaty applies to this, he said, then while Great Britain and the United States "each remains bound to the other in common helplessness, a third power, or a fourth, or a combination of many, may step in and give direction to the pro- ject which the Bulwer-Clayton treaty assumed to be under the sole control of the two English- speaking nations. " He referred to the fact, that in 1850 help was expected from British capital in the construction of a Nicaragua canal, an expecta- tion that had not been realized, and which had 162 LIFE OF JAMES G. ELAINE. now lost all importance. For these, and the other reasons set forth in the letter, Mr. Blaine sug- gested the following principal changes in the treaty : "First. Every part of the treaty which forbids the United States fortifying the canal and holding the political control of it in conjunction with the country in which it is located to be cancelled. " Second. Every part of the treaty in which Great Britain and the United States agree to make no acquisition of territory in Central America to remain in full force. * * * The acquisition of military and naval stations neces- sary for the protection of the canal, and volun- tarily ceded to the United States by the Central American States, is not to be regarded as a vio- lation of the provision contained in the foregoing. " Third. The United States will not object to maintaining the clause looking to the establish- ment of a free port at each end of whatever canal may be constructed, if England desires it to be retained." The fourth and fifth suggestions referring respectively to the obsolete clause covering the Panama and Tehuan tepee railway, and the incom- plete clause intended to govern the distance from the mouths of the canal where captures might be made in time of war, were of less importance. Mr. Blaine concluded with an earnest expression of the respect of the United States for all the SECRETARY OF STATE 163 rights of even its smallest neighbors on this con- tinent, but its unalterable objection to the med- dling of European powers in the isthmus canal question. ''It is the fixed purpose of the United States to confine it strictly and solely as an American question, to be dealt with and decided by the American Government." He added, that the present was thought as an opportunity for the readjustment of all difficulties, because at no time, since the peace of 1783, had the relations between the two Governments been so cordial and friendly. About a week later, Lord Granville's deferred reply to the circular-letter of June came to hand. It was brief and non-committal, but as Mr. Elaine had already anticipated it asserted " that the posi- tion of Great Britain and the United States with reference to the canal, irrespective of the magni- tude of the commercial relations of the former power with countries to and from which, if com- pleted, it will form the highway, is determined by the engagements entered into by them respect- ively in the convention, which was signed at Wash- ington on the i Qth of April, 1850, commonly known as the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, and Her Majesty's Government rely with confidence upon the observance of all the engagements of that treaty." This gave Mr. Elaine opportunity for a rejoinder which must be regarded as one of his ablest compositions. In a letter to Mr. Lowell, 1 64 LIFE OK JAMES G. ELAINE. covering but a few pages of the diplomatic reports, he rapidly piled up, in convincing array, the his- torical facts which showed that the Clayton-Bul- wer Treaty could by no possibility be regarded as the final word in the isthmus canal debate, but that it had, if anything, added to the causes of dif- ference by its vagueness of expression and the numerous topics which it introduced only to leave them at loose ends. He showed that in a short time after its adoption, the British Government itself proposed the extreme measure of referring the doubtful clauses to a friendly power for arbi- tration. Six years later the pretensions of the British Government over parts of Nicaragua and the coast islands, led to the attempt to reconcile the differences of opinion by the Clarendon- Dallas Treaty of 1856, which was never ratified. After this, President Buchanan and Secretary Cass, pressed in the strongest terms for the abro- gation of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, and were met by the British Goverment with the renewed proposal to refer it to arbitration. To this the American reply was, that it would be absurd to refer a question of the interpretation of the Eng- lish language, arising between two powers who possessed it in common, to a third power, having a different vernacular. When Lord Malmesbury succeeded Lord Clarendon in the foreign office, he frankly confessed to Lord Napier, the minister at Washington, that the treaty had been " a source SECRETARY OF STATE. 165 of increasing embarrassment " to both countries, but by this time, Sir William Ouseley was on his way to Central America to negotiate treaties with some of the States there, and as the Clayton-Bul- wer compact did, after all, restrain British acquisi- tiveness to a certain extent, General Cass cau- tiously refrained from proposing its abrogation at that time. This kind of triple deadlock, therefore, resulted in nothing but increasing the chronic dis- content of both nations with their mutual obliga- tions. "It will be seen," said Mr. Elaine, in clos- ing up, " that from the time of its conclusion in 1850 until the end of 1858, its provisions were thrice made the basis of a proposal to arbitrate as to their meaning, that modification and abroga- tion have been alike contingently considered, and that its vexations and imperfect character has been repeatedly recognized on both sides. The present proposal of this government is to free it from those embarrassing features, and leave it, as its framers intended it should be, a full and perfect settlement, for all time, of all possible issues between the United States and Great Britain with regard to Central America." While Mr. Blaine was thus vindicating the hegemony, as Dr. Liebir called it, or leadership of the United States among the States of North and Central America, and carrying on at the same time an earnest correspondence in regard to the treaty rights of American fishermen in 166 LIFE OF JAMKS G. BLAINK. Canadian waters, he was called upon to face a still greater responsibility in our South American relations. The fierce war between Chili and the allied powers of Peru and Bolivia, which he more than suspected had been stirred up by designing influences emanating from Europe, had taken more and more the form of a struggle for com- mercial supremacy, in which Chili, backed by English, and possibly by German, secret aid, had completely overthrown Peru, and by keeping that country in anarchy, was preparing to rob her of all her sources of wealth and leave almost an ungoverned desert Equally friendly to both republics, the United States could not but view this deplorable condition of affairs with the grav- est concern. While Peru was in danger of relapsing almost into barbarism, Chili was ambi- tiously seizing more territory than her slender resources could really assimilate, all progress on the Pacific coast of South America was likely to be retarded, the interests of the United States were ignored, and no class was gaining but selfish traders and speculators from the Old World. At the same time the regard which the Colossus of the North was bound to show toward the inde- pendence and free action of the weaker republics made the task of negotiation or interference a very delicate one. Mr. Blaine was not favored in his work by the assistance of a skilled diplomatic corps. Mr. SECRETARY OF STATE. 167 Hurlbut had been sent to Peru and Mr. Kilpat- rick to Chili, rather in consideration of their services as generals in the army than on account of fitness for diplomacy. The latter was in declining health, and was married to a devoted Chilian lady, which could not but tend to distract his sympathies to a greater or less extent. Mr. Elaine had almost as much trouble in controlling his own ministers in these remote regions, treat- ing with the excited belligerents, and his confi- dential despatches were often in terms of sharp reproof. Finally he adopted the course of send- ing Mr. William Henry Trescott, a gentleman of most thorough experience in Spanish-American affairs, accompanied by Mr. Walker Elaine, the Third Assistant Secretary of State, and a gentle- man of rare learning and sagacity, as a special mission to offer the friendly services of the United States in negotiating a humane and beneficial peace. These envoys persevered in their work under almost unparalleled difficulties until it was frustrated, like the Peace Congress and other salutary plans, by the change in the headship of the State Department at home. Still another disturbing element was added by the desperate efforts of certain American and other speculators to force the recognition of the enormous demands upon Peru, known as the Cochet and Landreau claims, for the discovery of the commercial value of the guano and nitrate 168 LIFE OF JAMKS G. BI.AIM.. deposits in that country, extending in amount to hundreds of millions of dollars. Mr. Blaine, like Mr. Evarts before him, gave these claims simply the formal consideration to which they were enti- tled, and directed them to be examined by the proper officers, but their attorney, a Mr. Shipherd, seized upon this as a full endorsement of their validity, and commenced an extraordinary and voluminous correspondence with the Department of State, and still more improperly with Minister Hurlbut, in which he assumed that the United States government and its officers were in partner- ship with him in a tremendous speculation, and that all were to profit by it financially. Mr. Blaine telegraphed peremptorily to Mr. Hurlbut to give no countenance to the scheme, and the latter for- warded to the Department all the letters with which he had been bombarded. Upon examining them, Mr. Blaine wrote to the visionary lawyer in New York in very unmistakeable language, informing him that he was disbarred from practice before the State Department, and that the only reason he was not prosecuted for attempted bribery was the probability that he was not fully accountable for his language and actions. Shipherd, in his rage, flew to Congress for that ready means of revenge an "investigation," and after accusing Mr. Blaine of "neglecting American interests abroad " changed the charge to one of the same offense which he had attempted to com- SECRETARY OF STATE. 169 mit official corruption. A young Democratic member from New York, saw a chance to achieve notoriety, at least, by assailing Mr. Elaine, so that for a fourth or fifth time the latter encountered his old friend, a bitterly partisan " smelling com- mittee," as they are expressively called. His two chief witnesses were dead, Mr. Kilpatrick and Mr. Hurlbut. The archives of the State Depart ment, with a mass of obscure and unexplained papers, were flung open against him with a surprising disregard of the most ordinary dip- lomatic reserve, and he was only a private citizen contending against those in power ; but again his vindication was triumphant and complete. The committee dropped its futile labors in disgust. Yet to this day the lies are industriously repeated that Mr. Elaine, as Secretary of State, " adopted a blustering tone toward England ;" " tried to involve the country in war," and "pressed a guano claim against Peru," when a mere reading of the published documents of his term would show the exact contrary in every particular. If necessary, reference might be made in this con- nection 'to the repeated instances in his official letters where he calls attention to the undefended and unwarlike posture of this country, and its aversion to war. Thus in his circular of June 24, 1 88 1, he says to all our representatives abroad : "The policy of the United States is one of peace i;O LIKE OF JA.MI.S G. IU.AINF,. and friendly intercourse with every o-overnment and people. This disposition is frankly avowed, and is, moreover, abundantly shown in the fact that our armaments by land and sea are kept within such limits as to afford no ground for dis- trust or suspicion of menace to other nations. The guarantee entered into by this government in 1846 was manifestly in the interest of peace, and the necessity imposed by circumstances upon the United States of America to watch over a highway between its two coasts was so impera- tive that the resultant guarantee was the simplest justice to the chief interests concerned. Any attempt to supersede that guarantee by an agree- ment between European powers, which maintain vast armies, and patrol the sea with immense fleets, and whose interest in the canal and its operation can never be so vital and supreme as ours, would partake of the nature of an alliance against the United States, and would be regarded by this government as an indication of unfriendly feeling. It would be but an inadequate response to the good will we bear them, and to our cheerful and constant recognition of their own rights of domestic policy, as well as those resulting from proximity or springing from neighborly interest." And, in the ensuing letter, although he says : "The military power of the United States, as shown by the recent civil war, is without limit, SECRETARY OF STATE. I 71 and, in any conflict on the American continent, altogether irresistible," he is quick to add that the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, by excluding land forces, surrenders the inter-oceanic canal " to the guardianship and control of the British navy." Notwithstanding his remarkable command of legal questions, which enabled him so efficiently to fill the highest place in the national cabinet, yet Mr. Elaine is not a lawyer. Plain people who remember the superabundance of lawyers in public life will not be apt to regret this fact. He studied for the profession two years, but did not enter upon its practice. This was never made a reproach to him until he entered the Senate and encountered the many legal luminaries there. They seemed to think that he was ipso facto, as they would say, disbarred from discussing any legal point with them, and tried to dismiss his arguments with the sneer " if the Senator were a lawyer but he is not," and so on. They soon found that the ex-journalist and schoolmaster had a firm hold on the very essence of the law, sound common sense, and this, with his accurate knowl- edge of facts often made havoc of their easy con- fidence in their professional acquirements. Finally, in the great debate on the distribution of the Geneva award, Mr. Elaine encountered the late Matthew Hale Carpenter, and the other giants of legal lore in the Senate, and fairly vanquished them all in a stand-up fight upon their own ground 172 LIFE OF JAMES G. ELAINE. and with their own weapons. After this there was no attempt to designate him as a layman or an ignoramus and he was heard as respectfully and attentively as any lawyer among them. Mr. Elaine could have become a notable jurist and advocate, and from his quick, impartial rulings as Speaker it is easy to see that he would have been eminent as a judge if his tastes had led him in that direction. All his powers found full scope, however, in the various spheres to which he was called, and in none more so than when Secretary of State under the trying ordeals through which he then passed. As Chief Magistrate of the nation, he would be altogether at home. CHAPTER XI. MR. ELAINE'S HOMES. THERE is a natural curiosity to know about the houses and homes of eminent men, for the home is generally the outgrowth of the tastes, character and disposition of the individual, and speaks of him almost as unmistakably as the sea- shell speaks of the creature around which it grew. In the city of Washington during over twenty years' service there, Mr. Elaine has most of the time lived in the manner sanctioned by- the example of St. Paul, in Rome ; but about five years ago, feeling able to indulge his tastes in that direction, he determined upon the erection of a dwelling which should suit his own ideas. With his usual prudence he chose a lot on the extreme verge of the West End, which did credit to his judgment as an investor. It was the former site of a brickyard, and forlorn-looking to the last degree, but Mr. Elaine saw that it was on high ground, that it commanded a fine prospect in every direction, that it fronted on what is now called Dupont Circle, which will soon be one of the finest parks in the city, and that it had a small " 173 174 LIFE OF JAMES G. BLAI.M-:. reservation in front giving somewhat the effect of large private grounds. The fashionable quarter was also extending in that direction, a process likely to be hastened by the removal thither of one in Mr. Elaine's station. The converging of P street and Massachusetts avenue toward the Circle, made the lota truncated angle, and on this the house is erected, open to the.sun and air on all sides. It is familiar to those who have visited Washington, being pointed out as one of the prominent landmarks, not on account of its intrinsic costliness, in which it is surpassed by others in the neighborhood, but on account of its well-chosen site, the good taste displayed and, in snort, because it is Mr. Elaine's. The materials are modest brick and brown stone, combined so as to produce a rich and harmonious effect. Having a large family and a dislike for anything like crowding, Mr. Elaine made it probably the most spacious private resi- dence in the District, unless the legation building supplied by the British Government to its repre- sentative can be included under that head. It also appears that he likes plenty of light, for the number of wide window openings, filled only with broad sheets of plate glass, sixty-four in all, it is stated, attracted some wonderment at the time. On the eastern, or Twentieth street front, is the main entrance, up a double flight of stone steps HON. JAMES G. ELAINE'S RESIDENCE, WASHINGTON, D. C. MR. ELAINE S HOMES. 177 with polished brass railings. On the North side is an ample porte cochere, above which is a large stained glass window, lighting the staircase within. On the west front is a wide piazza, commanding the gorgeous sunsets known to this latitude. The main hall might be called baronial in its dimensions. It has panelings and ceilings of oak, the latter supported on polished oak columns with richly-carved capitals. The stairs are massively built in oak, decorated with carvings, and the whole is set off by the great fire-place which fronts the visitor as he enters, and gives a home-like glow to the scene. To the right is a small reception-room, and to the left the large parlors and drawing-room. In the rear is the library, opening on the piazza before men- tioned. It is finished in mahogany, and the shelves are filled with books in handsome bind- ings, the treasured companions of Mr. Elaine's leisure and the instruments of his studies and lit- erary toil. On the other side of the hall is the dining- room, also finished in mahogany. All these apartments are appropriately but not extrava- gantly furnished, in -a manner bespeaking rather quiet good taste than love of display. To this house Mr. Elaine removed with his family from his Fifteenth-street house, near McPherson square, which he had occupied during i;8 LIFE OF JAMES G. HI.A1NK. the Speakership. It did not give him the satisfac- tion he had expected. His retirement from pub- lic life after the death of Garfield, and his absorp- tion in the researches necessary for writing "Twenty Years of Congress," made the big house an unnecessary care and burden. The only fes- tivity which took place in it during his occupancy- was the marriage of his eldest daughter to Major Coppinger of the regular Army, an event which still further diminished his household, one son being engaged in business in the West, while two children were at school. All things considered, Mr. Elaine gave up with- out much regret his " house beautiful," which required a large staff of servants and constant supervision, and returned to the condition of tenant in a brown-stone front on Lafayette square, a quiet, but aristocratic nook, just south of the Decatur mansion, and within a stone's throw of Mr. Corcoran's, the venerable George Bancroft's, the White House, and other notable structures. His practical wisdom was shown in the ease with which he secured for the house he had built a very remunerative rental from a Chicago mil- lionaire, with ample means and inclination for the social entertaining to which it is so well adapted. Yet it is not in any of the four or five houses he has occupied in Washington, that Mr. Elaine has ever felt so truly at home as in the big, ramb- ling, yet not unsightly structure at Augusta, MR. ELAINE'S HOMES. 181 Maine, which has been his for about thirty years, and which he has improved, modified and added to just as his circumstances permitted or required. It stands almost alone in one of the large city blocks of Augusta, across the street from the old State House, with a wide lawn at the side, shaded by noble old trees, and surrounded by the flower and vegetable gardens, stables and outhouses. The original house is plain and square in the New England style, divided by the hallway in the middle. Back of this on one side is an addition containing Mr. Elaine's office, which can be seen at a glance on entering, to be a work-room, so full is it of books, documents, and conveniences for rapid writing and easy reference. Among the ornaments is the ivory gavel which he wielded so admirably for six years as Speaker, now swung on silken ribbons in honorable repose. A bust of Abraham Lincoln surmounts one of the book- cases, and busts and portraits of other noted friends are placed about. In the other direction, another annex, almost if not quite as large as the original structure, has grown up ; another air of the whole is that of ample space as well as cosiness. So indeed it proves, for the house is comfortable both winter and summer, and furnished with every device which ingenuity can suggest. His towns- people are always glad to have their distinguished citizen among them, and he is always glad to be there. CHAPTER XII. SEEN BY ENGLISH EYES. In the London World of July i3th, 1881, Mr. Elaine is described by an English journalist. The article is one of a series on " Celebrities at Home." It describes the home Mr. Elaine then occupied, and gives the features of an interview with him there, he then being Secretary of State. The article, omitting certain portions merely bio- graphical, is here given : " In one of a group of four tall houses, built of brown stone and red brick, situated in Fifteenth Street, Washington, and bearing the number 821, dwells the American Secretary of State. With the assurance of meeting with the kindest wel- come from a statesman universally known for his hospitality and his amiability, and of being enter- tained with his charming conversation for a few minutes, if the pressing morning duties of the Premier will at all permit it, we stroll along the quiet street, and, arriving at the neat doorstep, pull the bell at Mr, Elaine's. Our cards are taken by a young negress, who, in English undefiled by 182 SEEN BY ENGLISH EYES. 183 the slave's jargon of the Southern plantation, makes the usual cautious remark that she does not know if Mr. Blaine is at home. Four large rooms constitute the drawing-room suite, the ground floor, at Mr. Elaine's. A bow-window on the street adds to the size of the rooms, and affords further scope for the loving ornamenta- tion with which each of these apartments is endowed. There are many valuable objects here ; much rare china on the walls and in cabinets ; fine pictures ; some good statuary ; but the greatest charm of the place is its home-like spirit, which enters the heart of the visitor, and tells him that the Premier and his family specially inhabit these rooms, and keep no corner of their house sacred to the cold perfunctory ceremony of merely receiv- ing visitors. " Mr. Secretary Elaine's house is incontestably the most popular in Washington. On Wednes- day afternoons the days in Washington when, during the Session of Congress, the wives of Cabinet Ministers and those of foreign Ambassa- dors receive there is no house in the American capital so crowded. Whatever the weather, how- ever thin the attendance in other drawing rooms, there is always a throng at Mr. Elaine's. Nor is this due to the importance of his present position as Secretary of State. It was the same when he was in Congress, whether as a member or Speaker of the House ; it was the same when he was in 184 LIFE OF JAMKS G, Bl.AINE. the Senate ; it would be the same if Mr. Elaine were not in politics. " People go there because they like Mr. Blaine and all his family, which consists of his intellectual 'and ladylike wife a kinswoman of brilliant repu- tation in American letters, who uses the nom dc plume of ' Gail Hamilton ; ' and six fine and promising children. Never since the days of the silver-voiced Henry Clay, of Kentucky, has there been a man in the United States whose personal magnetism has been acknowledged to be so potent as that of Mr. Blaine. The power which Mr. Blaine exercises over men, the unfailing success he enjoys in winning their affection, has been var- iously attributed to his epigrammatic speech, his delightful jocularity, to his earnest face and his splendid physique. But there is a more simple explanation. ''Mr. Elaine's universal popularity is directly derived from the sweet and unaffected nature of the man, and from the unchanging goodness of his big warm heart. To be a great statesman, and yet a kind, generous, and sympathizing friend to uncountable scores of little people whose acquaint- ance he has made during the last twenty or thirty years of his life ; to maintain a demeanor of per- fect dignity at all times, and yet to know how to unbend to each visitor in just the degree neces- sary to make the latter feel that of all ' good fel- lows ' in the world, ' Blaine of Maine ' is the SEEN BY ENGLISH EYES. 185 best, demands intellectual talents and moral quali- ties of the highest order. These talents and these qualities are well known to be the attributes of Mr. Elaine ; and they are not denied him even by those whose interests in the political arena are arrayed against his own. "In the examination of the drawing-rooms at Mr. Elaine's we find, among other valuable pos- sessions, one very interesting picture a large canvas by Sir Peter Lely, representing Charles II. and his Court. It is signed, with the date 1658. It was painted by Sir Peter for Lord Baltimore, and was bought by Mr. Elaine for a sum of com- parative unimportance at the sale of the Calvert estate, Riverdale, Maryland, a few years ago. There is not an art-gallery in Europe, public or private, which would not be enriched by this large historical picture, full of portraits, and executed in Lely's most delicate and yet most animated style. " Near at hand, on a rich pedestal, stands a fine life-size bust of Mr. Elaine, as good a likeness of the statesman as could perhaps be obtained in his form of a man, the charm of whose features lies principally in their nobility and ever-changing play. Portraits of men of letters abound here. Dickens, Thackeray, Disraeli, Washington Irving, Haw- thorne, and many others gaze down from the walls, principally in the last of the suite of drawing- rooms the one in which the Premier sits of a 1 86 I.IKE OF JAMES G. ELAINE. morning before going to the Department of State, examining such letters as imperatively demand his attention at home. Routine correspondence is carried on by secretaries in a vast room at the top of the house, and is an enormous task. "Listen! A deep mellow voice is warmly cry- ing out, ' Now, is there anything more annoying than to be kept waiting ? ' To which we reply, with truth, ' It is not annoying with the prospect in view of seeing you.' Elaine of Maine acknowl- edges the compliment by a hearty grasp from both his extended hands. It is impossible to exagger- ate the charm of his manner, because with his own great brilliancy he has a sort of delightful and modest deference to the opinion of his listener, as though to say, 'Am I right? Does your judg- ment approve of this ? ' which, it is needles to say, is most 'taking' with every auditor. And there is nothing false here. It is the natural idiosyncrasy of a frank and impulsive man, with a very warm heart, kindly instincts, and generous nature. In stature Mr. Elaine is above the medium height, and is of strong and compactly- built frame. His head is large, his hair gray and abundant ; his face is engaging in expression, large in feature, and lighted by a pair of brilliant dark-brown eyes. His movements are alert and vigorous, save when he is in the inquistorial tor- tures of an inherited enemy the gout. ' I suffer vicariously from the gout,' he explains, with a SEEN BY ENGLISH EYES. 187 rueful grimace. ' I never earned the gout. I never drank a glass of spirits in my life. Yet I must endure the agonies of the gout, because my jolly old British ancestors denied themselves noth- ing.' These ancestors were of that excellent mingling known as the Scotch-Irish." This picture, added to that describing his new house in Washington and his old home in Augusta, will show the surroundings amid which Mr. Elaine dwells. CHAPTER XIII. KEENNESS OF PERCEPTION. To a degree seldom equalled, Mr. Elaine pos- sesses the ability to look into the most obscure subjects and to penetrate the most effective dis- guises, so as to see clearly all that lies beneath. Rare indeed would be the measure or the man which could contain or favor a latent fraud and yet escape his searching scrutiny and his unspar- ing exposures. This capacity is not that micro- scopic ability which even small men possess in some instances, enabling them to discover every mote in a brother's eye and every unsavory fly in the pot of fragrant ointment. It is telescopic rather ; looking beyond the conspicuous planets and stars, and resolving into absolute distinctness the cloudlike, mysterious whiteness of the celestial nebulae. In April, 1879, the Democratic rnembers pushed forward what seemed to be an unimportant and unobjectionable proposal to strike eight words from an existing section of the laws regulating the army of the United States. But behind this unpretentious proposal, there was a world of import unseen by most men. To uncover this, 1 88 KEENNESS OF PERCEPTION. 189 Mr. Elaine addressed the Senate. He said : " Mr. PRESIDENT : The existing section of the Revised Statutes numbered 2002 reads thus : " ' No military or naval officer, or other persons engaged in the civil, military, or naval service of the United States, shall order, bring, keep or have under his authority or control, any troops or armed men at the place where any general or special election is held in any State, unless it be necessary to repel the armed enemies of the United States, or to keep the peace at the polls.' "The object of the proposed section, which has just been read at the Clerk's desk, is to get rid of the eight closing words, namely, "or to keep the peace at the polls," and therefore the mode of legislation proposed in the Army bill now before the Senate is an unusual mode ; it is an extraordinary mode. If you want to take off a single sentence at the end of a section in the Revised Statutes, the ordinary way is to strike off those words, but the mode chosen in this bill is to repeat and re-enact the whole section leaving those few words out. While I do not wish to be needlessly suspi- cious on a small point, I am quite persuaded that this did not happen by accident, but that it came by design. If I may so speak, it came of cunning, the intent being to create the impression that whereas the Republicans in the administration of the General Government had been using troops, right and left, hither and thither, in every direc- tion, as soon as the Democrats got power they 190 MIT. >r JAMF.S c;. ELAINE. enacted this section. I can imagine Democratic candidates for Congress, all over the country, reading this section to gaping and listening audi- ences as one of the first offsprings of Democratic reform, whereas every word of it, every syllable of it, from its first to its last, is the enactment of a Republican Congress. " I repeat that this unusual form presents a dishonest issue, whether so intended or not. It presents the issue that as soon as the Democrats got possession of the Federal Government they proceeded to enact the clause which is thus expressed. The law was passed by a Republican Congress in 1865. There were forty-six Senators sitting in this Chamber at the time, of whom only ten, or at most eleven, were Democrats. The House of Representatives was overwhelmingly Republican. We were in the midst of a war. The Republican administration had a million or possibly twelve hundred thousand bayonets at its command. Thus circumstanced and thus sur- rounded, with the amplest possible power to interfere with elections had they so designed, with soldiers in every hamlet and county in the United States, the Republican party themselves placed that provision on the statute-book, and Abraham Lincoln, their President, signed it. " I beg you to observe, Mr. President, that this is the first instance in the legislation of the United States in which any restrictive clause whatever KEENNESS OF PERCEPTION. was put upon the statute-book in regard to the use of troops at the polls. The Republican party did it with the Senate and the House in their control. Abraham Lincoln signed it when he was Commander-in-Chief of an army larger than ever Napoleon Bonaparte had at his command. So much by way of correcting an ingenious and studied attempt at misrepresentation. "The alleged object is to strike out the few words that authorize the use of troops to keep peace at the polls. This country has been alarmed, I rather think, indeed, amused, at the great effort made to create a widespread impression that the Republican party relies for its popular strength upon the use of the bayonet. This Democratic Congress has attempted to give a bad name to this country throughout the civilized world, and to give it on a false issue. They have raised an issue that has no foundation in fact that is false in whole and detail, false in the charge, false in all the specifications. That impression sought to be created, as I say, not only through- out the North American continent, but in Europe to-day, is that elections are attempted in this country to be controlled by the bayonet. " I denounce it here as a false issue. I am not at liberty to say that any gentleman making the issue knows it to be false ; I hope he does not ; but I am going to prove to him that it is false, and there is not a solitary inch of solid earth on which LIFE OF JAMKS (.. Hl.AIM. to rest the foot of any man that makes that issue." Mr. Elaine then gave the location of all the armed forces of the Union in a most entertaining and mirth-provoking manner. "I believe," said he, " the .Senator from Delaware is alarmed, greatly alarmed, about the over-riding of the popular ballot by troops of the United States ! In Delaware there is not a single armed man, not one. The United States has not even one soldier in the State. " The honorable Senator from West Virginia [Mr. HEREFORD] on Friday last lashed himself into a passion, or at least into a perspiration, over the wrongs of his State, trodden down by the iron heel of military despotism. There is not a solitary man of the United States uniformed on the soil of West Virginia, and there has not been for years. "In Maryland. I do not know whether my esteemed friend from Maryland [Mr. W T HYTE] has been greatly alarmed or not ; but at Fort McHenry, guarding the entrance to the beautiful harbor of his beautiful city, there are one hundred and ninety two artillerymen located. "In Virginia there is a school of practice at Fortress Monroe. My honorable friend who has charge of this bill [Mr. WITHERS] knows very well, and if he does not I will tell him, that outside of that school of practice at Fortress Monroe, KEENNESS OF PERCEPTION. 193 which has two hundred and eighty-two men in it, there is not a Federal soldier on the soil of Virginia not one. " North Carolina. Are the Senators from that State alarmed at the immediate and terrible pros- pect of being overrun by the Army of the United States ? On the whole soil of North Carolina there are but thirty soldiers guarding a fort at the mouth of Cape Fear River just thirty. " South Carolina. I do not see a Senator on the floor from that State. There are one hundred and twenty artillerymen guarding the approaches to Charleston Harbor, and not another soldier on her soil. " Georgia. Does my gallant friend from Georgia [Mr. GORDON] who knows better than I the force and strength of military organization, the senior Senator, 'and the junior also are both or either of those Senators alarmed at the presence of twenty-nine soldiers in Georgia? There are just twenty-nine there. " Tennessee. Is the honorable Senator from Tennessee [Mr. BAILEY] alarmed at the progress of military despotism in -his State ? There is not a single Federal soldier on the soil of Tennessee, not one. " Kentucky. I see both the honorable Sena- tors from Kentucky here. They have equal cause with Tennessee to be alarmed, for there is not a Federal soldier in Kentucky not one 1 194 I-Il-'I'- <"' JAMI-S C. 1M.AIXK. " Missouri. Not one. "Arkansas. Fifty-seven in Arkansas. "Alabama. I think my friend from Alabama [Mr. MOKCAN] is greatly excited over this ques- tion, and in his State there are thirty-two Federal soldiers located at an arsenal of the United States. "Mississippi. The great State of Mississippi, that is in danger of being trodden under the iron hoof of military power, has not a Federal soldier on its soil." Thus did the ready speaker proceed over the several states, provoking merriment at each fresh disclosure and exposing the absolute absurdity of the issue then so grossly magnified by his oppo- nents. Returning to his main work after this statistical by-play, he continued : "Mr. President, it was said, as the old maxim has it, that the soothsayers of Rome could not look each other in the face without smiling. There are not two Democratic Senators on this floor who can go into the cloak-room and look each other in the face without smiling at this talk, or, more appropriately, I should say, without blushing the whole thing is such a prodigious and abso- lute farce, such a miserably manufactured false issue, such a pretense without the slightest found- ation in the world, and talked about most and denounced the loudest in States that have not had a single Federal soldier. KEENNESS OF PERCEPTION. 1 97 "What, then, is the real motive underlying this movement? Senators on that side, Democratic ora- tors on the stump, cannot make any sensible set of men at the cross-roads believe that they are afraid of eleven hundred and fifty-five soldiers, distributed one to each county in the South. The minute you state that everybody sees the utter palpable and laughable absurdity of it, and there- fore we must go further and find a motive for all this cry. We want to find out, to use a familiar and vulgar phrase, what is "the cat under the meal." It is not the troops. That is evident. There are more troops, by fifty per cent., scattered through the Northern States east of the Missis- sippi to-day than through the Southern States east of the Mississippi, and yet nobody in the North speaks of it ; everybody would be laughed at for speaking of it ; and therefore the issue, I take no risk in stating, I make bold to declare, that this issue on the troops, being a false one, being one without foundation, conceals the true issue, which is simply to get rid of the Federal presence at Federal elections, to get rid of the civil power of the United States in the election of Representa- tives to the Congress of the United States. That is the whole of it ; and disguise it as you may, there is nothing else in it or of it." This merciless method of exposing what Mr. Elaine's judgment condemned made him an antagonist not to be aroused with impunity. But . 190 I.IM-: <>i- IA.MI-S G. KI.AIM:. he did not need to be " stirred up " for an attack. His keen scent led him unerringly to the exact lurking-place of evil, and when it was discovered, his indomitable courage never faltered. And yet those assailed the most sharply were at the same time so held by Mr. Elaine's manner that they never cherished ill-will. The late Governor Kent, of Maine, summed up Mr. Elaine's general "quickness," or "dash," or by whatever term it may best be designated, as follows : "Almost from the day of his assuming editorial charge of the Kennebec Journal, at the early age of twenty-three, Mr. Elaine sprang into a position of great influence in the politics and policy of Maine. At twenty-five he was a leading power in the councils of the Republican party, so rec- ognized by Fessenden, Hamlin, the two Morrills, and others, then and still prominent in the State. Before he was twenty-nine he was chairman of the executive committee of the Republican organization in Maine a position he has held ever since, and from which he has practically shaped and directed every political campaign in the State always lead- ing his party to brilliant victory. Had Mr. Elaine been New-England born, he would probably not have received such rapid advancementatsoearlyan age, even with the same ability he possessed. But there was a sort of Western dash about him that took with us Down-Easters ; an expression of frankness, KEENNESS OF PERCEPTION. 199 candor and confidence that gave him from the start a very strong and permanent hold on our people, and as the foundation of all, a pure char- acter and a masterly ability equal to all demands made upon him." As a reflection on Mr. Elaine's quickness it is asked, disparagingly, "What great measure did Mr. Blaine ever originate ? " One might go on indefinitely asking what great measure did Mr. Sherman or Mr. Thurman ever originate, or Mr. Edmunds or Mr. Conkling or Mr. Webster or Mr. Gallatin ? Such critics and such criticisms are equally shallow. Great measures grow in the minds of the people. Specie payment came after long public discussion, and it is useless to be quarrelling as to who it was that drafted the bill passed in 1875. So it is with all measures of great public moment. They do not spring from the mind of one man sitting behind his Congress- ional desk. The duty of. the statesman is to shape, mould, guide, direct in a Republican gov- ernment. The creative power is in the minds of many, and the cause of action is necessity. The great lawyer does not create his case. He argues it, develops it, applies principles to it, but in any case Mr. Blaine is among the first to see, and the earlier to act. To say that Mr. Blaine has been a power in Congress for the past seventeen years is simply to affirm current history, Though entering very 2OD I.I IT! <>F JAMI'S C-. r.I.AINi:. young, he made his mark at once. At the period of darkest depressions in the war, when anxiety brooded everywhere and boded everything, Mr. Blaine delivered a speech on "The Ability of the American People to Suppress the Rebellion," which has been cited for the great attention and warm commendation it received. Its value lay not alone in its timeliness, for after its first wide circulation it was reprinted as a campaign docu- ment in the Presidential campaign of 1864. It was the delivery of this speech, and some discussions which took place shortly after, that caused Thaddeus Stevens to say that " Blaine of Maine has shown as great aptitude and ability for the higher walks of public life as any man that hail come to Congress during his period of ser- vice." CHAPTER XIV. " STIRRING UP STRIFE." ON May iQth, 1879, there was a lively time in the Senate on the question of National Sov- ereignty versus State Sovereignty. The question before the Senate was a bill making appropria- tions for the legislative, executive, and judicial expenses of the Government, but discussion took a wide range, and abounded in cross-firing of wit and repartee. Mr. Elaine had the floor, but Mr. Eaton, of Connecticut, Mr. Bayard, of Delaware, Mr. Butler, of South Carolina, and others, figured largely in the discussions. Toward the close of the discussion, Mr. Elaine, continuing his frequently interrupted speech, and seeking to unearth the sources of existing ill-will, said : " I do not think the evil that has been done to the Southern country by the school-books in the hands of their children has been measured. Many of the books put into the hands of the rising generation of the South are tinctured all through with prejudice and misrepresentation and with a spirit of hatred. "We are accused by our friends on the opposite side of the Chamber of stirring up strife 201 2O2 LITE OF JAM MS (i. J5LAINE. and generating hatred. I do not believe it would be possible to find in all the literature of the North for the schools and for the young a solitary para- graph intended or calculated to arouse hatred or suggest unpatriotic feelings toward any portion of the Union. A large portion of the South has been furnished with special school-books calculated for the meridian, with the facts appended to suit that particular locality. It was said that for two generations a large portion of the English people believed that the American colonies had never achieved their independence, but had been kicked off as a useless appendage to the British Empire, and that they were glad to be rid of us. "There is a large number of the school children in the South who are educated with radically wrong notions and radically erroneous facts. I saw an arithmetic that was filled with examples think of putting politics into an arithmetic such as this : If ten cowardly Yankees had so many miles the start, and five brave Confederates were following them, the first going at so many miles an hour, and the others following at so many miles an hour, how long before the Yankees would be overtaken ? Now, think of putting that deliber- ately in a school-book and having school histories made up on that basis for children. I have here from a gentleman who, I believe, is a man of high position, an extract which is so pertinent that I desire to read it. It is from an address before STIRRING UP STRIFE. 2O3 the literary societies of the Virginia University, by Mr. John S. Preston, a gentleman of distinction, I believe, in the State of South Carolina. I want to read this merely to put it- on record to show the pabulum on which the Southern mind feeds : 'The Mayflower freight, under the laws of England, was heresy and crime. The Jamestown emigrant was an English freeman, loyal to his country and his God, with England's honor in his heart and English piety in his soul, and carrying in his right hand the charters, usages, and the laws which were achieving the regenerations of England. * * * These two peoples spoke the same language, and nominally read the same Bible ; but like the offspring of the Syrian princes, they were two manner of people, and they could not coalesce or commune. Their feud began beyond the broad Atlantic, and has never ceased on its Western shores. Not space, or time, or the convenience of any human law, or the power of any human arm, can reconcile institutions for the turbu- lent fanatic of Plymouth Rock and the God-fearing Christian of Jamestown. You may assign them to the closest territorial proximity, with all the forms, modes, and shows of civilization ; but you can never cement them into the bonds of brotherhood. Great nature, in her supremest law, forbids it. Territorial localization drove them to a hollow and unnatural armistice in effect- ing their segregation from England the one for the lucre of traffic, the other to obtain a more perfect law of liberty ; the one to destroy foreign tea, the other to drive out for- eign tyrants ; the one to offer thanksgiving for the fruit of the earth, the other to celebrate the gift of grace by the birth of Christ.' 2O4 LI IT. 'F JAMKS C. ULAIM. "I know the piety of New England has some- times been criticised, hut 1 never before heard of such fervent zeal among the Jamestown emigrants." MR. BUTLER. What is the date of that ? MR. BLAINE. I think in 1875 or 1876. Does the Senator from South Carolina think that is enough to establish a statute of limitations ? MR. BUTLER. I say nothing about it. MR. MORGAN. May I be allowed a word ? MR. BLAINE. Certainly. MR. MORGAN. I have not seen all these arith- metics, or school histories either, to which the Senator from Maine refers. I doubt very much their existence, unless the Senator has them present to prove the fact. I refer now to those published since the war. MR. BLAINE. I refer only to those published since the war. MR. MORGAN. There is some other literature, however, in the Southern States which I will call the attention of the Senator from Maine to, that perhaps would indicate that there was some necessity for counter proceedings for the purpose of infusing the minds 6f the people down there with correct ideas on political questions. I hold in my hand the " minutes of the twelfth session of the Alabama Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, held at Mobile, Alabama, in Emmanuel church, December 18, 19, 20, 21, and STIRRING UP STRIFE. 205 22, 1878, Right Reverend Bishop J. P. Campbell, D. D., LL. D., president." He is a colored man, and a very learned man I am told. On page 13 of the minutes of that conference I find the follow- ing entry : " Committee on letters and petitions : " First. Complaint against Z. Taylor, of Birmingham, for voting Democratic ticket, signed by United States marshal." The decision was : " His case out of jurisdiction of this conference; belongs to North Alabama conference." [Laughter.] . I have no comment to make upon that. MR. ELAINE. That begins to show me that the claim for piety in the South that Mr. Preston makes has some foundation. [ Laughter.] If they begin to bring up men before church con- ferences for voting the Democratic, State-rights, secession ticket, I think it is good evidence of reform. [ Laughter.] It gives some ground of patriotic hope for the future. " I have here also a speech delivered by the honorable Senator from South Carolina, the junior Senator from that State [ MR. HAMPTON], before the Historical Society, I believe, of the South, and this has arrested my attention. Of course, I read it in no spirit of captious or personal criticism, but as a great public document ; and if what I read means anything, it means a great deal : 206 LIH-: <>i' JAMKS <.. IU.AINE. 'These are the lessons our children should learn from their mothers. Nor are these the only ones which should be inculcated, for the pages of history furnish many which should not be overlooked. These teach, in the clearest and most emphatic manner, that there is always hope for a people who cherish the spirit of freedom, who will not tamely give up their rights, and who, amid all the changes of time, the trials of adversity, remain stead- fast to their convictions that liberty is their birthright. ******** ' When Napoleon in that wonderful campaign of Jena, struck down in a few weeks the whole military strength of Prussia, destroyed that army with which the great Frederick had held at bay the combined forces of Europe, and crushed out, apparently forever, the liberties, seem- ingly the very existence of that great state, but one hope of disenthrallment and regeneration was left her the unconquered and unconquerable patriotism of her sons. As far as human foresight could penetrate the future, this hope appeared but a vain and delusive one ; yet only a few years passed before her troops turned the scale of victory of Waterloo, and the treaty of Paris atoned in part for the mortification of that of Tilsit ** * * * * ** ' She educated her children by a system which made them good citizens in peace and formidable soldiers in war; she kindled and kept alive the sacred fire of patriot- ism ; she woke the slumbering spirit of the Fatherland ; and what has been the result of this self-devotion of a whole people for half a century? Single-handed she has just met her old antagonist. The shame of her de- feats of yore has been wiped out by glorious victories; the contributions extorted from her have been more than STIRRING UP STRIFE. 2C>7 repaid ; her insults have been avenged, and her victorious eagles, sweeping over the broken lilies of her enemy, vaved in triumph from the walls of conquered Paris, kvhile she dictated peace to prostrate and humbled France. Is not the moral to be drawn from this noble dedication of a people to the interests and honor of their country ivorth rememberiug. ' Hungary in her recent struggle to throw off the yoke of Austria was crushed to the earth, and yet to-day the Hungarians, as citizens of Austria, exercise a controlling power in that great empire.' "I say, if that means anything, it means a great deal. If that means anything at all, it means the education of the rising generation of the South for another conflict; it means that or else it is vapid and idle rhetoric. And I say again, Mr. President, that throughout the length and breadth of the South the one evil omen of to-day is the literature that is given to the children and the intellectual food that is offered to all the young and rising men in the institutions of learning, in their academies, their colleges, their universities Mr. HAMPTON. May I ask the Senator from Maine to yield to me for a moment? Mr. ELAINE. With great pleasure. Mr. HAMPTON. The words which he has done me the honor to quote do not mean what he is pleased to call another rebellion. If it is " idle and vapid rhetoric," I admit that it is not such rhetoric as he pours out ; but if it is vapid and idle 2O8 I. UK OF JAMES G. ELAINE. rhetoric I have only to plead guilty to the charge when made by him. Mr. IJi. A INK. If the Senator speaks of a revival of a power that was once conquered, to be victorious at another Waterloo, with a crowning peace in Paris to atone for the humiliation oi Tilsit if that means anything by analogy at all, it has a deep and far-reaching significance. Mr. HAMFFON. " Peace hath her victories No less renowned than war. " Mr. ELAINE. But peace does not celebrate her victories on the plains of Waterloo. That is where war celebrates its triumphs. Peace does not celebrate itself by great armed hosts that are employed and marshaled for avenging insult, to which the honorable Senator called attention. That is not the language of peace, and without the slightest intention to say anything discourteous, I say it is mere rhetoric I leave out the adjective it is mere rhetoric, or it is a prodigious menace. It is the one or the other. "As to the pending bill, I need only to say that the laws proposed to be repealed are precisely the kind which Mr. Webster alluded to when he addressed Mr. Calhoun ; laws that have received the sanction of Congress and been for years on the statute-book. They are there properly. They have secured justice; they have assured fair and equal elections ; they ought to be upheld ; and to STIRRING LT STRIFE. this hour not one solitary reason has been shown for their repeal, with the single exception of a desire to grasp artisan power. It all moves in one direction. Every step has been taken since the Democratic party got into power in the House and in the Senate in one direction, and that direction has been to the striking down of the Federal power and the exaltation of the State power. This measure is but one. Others have gone before it; others are to follow it. What may be their fate I do not know. We on this side will resist by every constitutional means, and you on that side, despite the threats of the Sen- ator from Connecticut, will be obliged to submit o in the end, and the power of this Government will not be put down by a threat ; it will not be put down by a combination ; it will not be put down by a political party. It was not put down by a rebellion. It can meet another, either in the form of organized resistance in withholding supplies, or in the more serious form which the language of the Senator from South Carolina seemed to fore- shadow." Thus squarely did Mr. Blaine meet any and all comers in the interests of opposition to the national life and prosperity. His fulness of information, his facility of expression, and his capacity for instantaneous and telling reply,-made him effective at all times. At the close of this 210 LIKE OF JAMES G. BLAIM.. particular effort, the galleries broke into prolonged applause, which the President of the Senate was for a time powerless to check. For the passing moment it might seem that Mr. Blaine did stir up strife, but his was the work of the skillful surgeon who cuts to cure ; who seeks sound healing rather than superficial smoothness. CHAPTER XV. WITHERING SARCASM. IT will be remembered that in April, 1879, the passing of the necessary appropriation bills was refused on the decision of the Democratic caucus, unless accompanied with the passage of certain other bills, planned and favored by the same authority. Such an effort to coerce legislation could but arouse the indignation of every free and fearless man, and it did thoroughly arouse Mr. Elaine, and call forth his withering power of denunciation and sarcasm, which weapons he employs reluctantly, and never except on pressing occasions. On this movement he spoke thus in the Senate : " We are told, too, rather a novel thing, that if we do not take these laws, we are not to have the appropriations. I believe it has been announced in both branches of Congress, I suppose on the authority of the Democratic caucus, that if we do not take these bills as they are planned, we shall not have any of the appropriations that go with them. The honorable Senator from West Vir- ginia [Mr. HEREFORD] told it to us on Friday ; the honorable Senator from Ohio [Mr. THURMAN] '3 211 212 LIFE OF JAMES G. ELAINE. told it to us last session ; the honorable Senator from Kentucky [Mr. BECK] told it to us at the same time, and I am not permitted to speak of the legions who told us so in the other House. They say all these appropriations are to be refused not merely the Army appropriation, for they do not stop at that. Look, for a moment, at the legislative bill that came from the Democratic caucus. Here is an appropriation in it for defray- ing the expenses of the Supreme Court and the circuit and district courts of the United States, including the District of Columbia, &c., '$2,800,000 : ' ' Provided ' provided what ? 'That the following sections of the Revised Statutes relating to elections ' (Going on to recite them) ' be repealed.' " That is, you will pass an appropriation for the support of the judiciary of the United States only on condition of this repeal. We often speak of this government being devided between three great departments, the executive, the legislative, and the judicial co-ordinate, independent, equal. The legislative, under the control of a Democratic caucus, now steps forward and says, ' We offer to the Executive this bill, and if he does not sign it, we are going to starve the judiciary.' That is carrying the thing a little further than I have ever known. We do not merely propose to starve the Executive if he will not sign the bill, but we pro- pose to starve the judiciary that has had nothing WITHERING SARCASM. 213 whatever to do with the question. That has been boldly avowed on this floor ; that has been boldly avowed in the other House ; that has been boldly avowed in Democratic papers throughout the country. "And you propose not merely to starve the judiciary, but you propose that you will not appro- priate a solitary dollar to take care of this Capitol. The men who take care of this great amount of public property are provided for in that bill. You say they shall not have any pay if the President will not agree to change the election laws. There is the public printing that goes on for the enlight- ment of the whole country and for printing the public documents of every one of the depart- ments. You say they shall not have a dollar for public printing unless the President agrees to repeal these laws. " There is the Congressional Library that ha i become the pride of the whole American peop e for its magnificent growth and extent. You s iy it shall not have one dollar to take care of it, much less add a new book, unless the President signs these bills. There is the Department of State that we think throughout the history of the Government has been a great pride to this country for the ability with which it has conducted our foreign affairs ; it is also to be starved. You say we shall not have any intercourse with foreign nations, not a dollar shall be appropriated there- 214 LIFE OF JAMES G. BLAINE. for unless the President signs these bills. There is the Light-House Board that provides for the beacons and the warnings on seventeen thousand miles of sea and gulf and lake coast. You say those lights shall all go out and not a dollar shall be appropriated for the board if the President does not sign these bills. There are the mints of the United States at Philadelphia, New Orleans, Denver, San Francisco, coining silver and coining gold not a dollar shall be appropriated for them if the President does not sign these bills. There is the Patent office, the patents issued which embody the invention of the country not a dollar for them. The Pension Bureau shall cease its operations unless these bills are signed, and patriotic soldiers may starve. The Agricultural Bureau, the Post Office Department, every one of the great executive functions of the Government is threatened, taken by the throat, highwayman style, collared on the highway, commanded to stand and deliver in the name of the Democratic congressional caucus. That is what it is ; simply that. No committee of this Congress in either branch has ever recommended that legislation not one. Simply a Democratic caucus has done it. " Of course, this is new. We are learning some- thing every day. I think you may search the records, of the Federal Government in vain; it will take some one much more industrious in that WITHERING SARCASM. 21$ search than I have ever been, and much more observant than I have ever been, to find any pos- sible parallel or any possible suggestion in our past history of any such thing. Most of the Senators who sit in this chamber can remember some vetoes by Presidents that shook this country to its centre with excitement. The veto of the national bank bill by Jackson in 1832, remembered by the oldest in this Chamber ; the veto of the national bank bill in 1841 by Tyler, remembered by those not the oldest, shook this country with a political excitement which up to that time had scarcely a parallel ; and it was believed, whether rightfully or wrongfully is no matter, it was believed by those who advocated those financial measures at the time, that they were of the very last importance to the well-being and pros- perity of the people of the Union. That was believed by the great and shining lights of that day. It was believed by that man of imperial character and imperious will, the great Senator from Kentucky. It was believed by Mr. Webster, the greatest of New England Senators. When Jackson vetoed the one or Tyler vetoed the other, did you ever hear a suggestion that those bank charters should be put on appropriation bills, or that there should not be a dollar to run the Gov- ernment until they were signed? So far from it that, in 1841, when temper was at its height; when the Whig party, in addition to losing their 2l6 LIFE OK JAMES G. 11LAIXE. great measure, lost it under the sting and the irritation of what they believed was a desertion by the President whom they had chosen ; and when Mr. Clay, goaded by all these considerations, rose to debate the question in the Senate, he repelled the suggestion of William C. Rives, of Virginia, who attempted to make upon him the point that he had indulged in some threat involving the inde- pendence of the Executive. Mr. Clay rose to his full height and thus responded : " ' I said nothing whatever of any obligation on the part of the President to conform his judgment to the opinions of the Senate and the House of Representatives, although the Senator argued as if I had, and persevered in so argu- ing after repeated correction. I said no such thing. I know and I respect the perfect independence of each department, acting within its proper sphere, of the other departments.' "The late vice-president of the confederacy boasted perhaps I had better say stated that for sixty out of the seventy-two years preceding the outbreak of the Rebellion, from the foundation of the Government, the South, though in a min- ority, had, by combining with what he termed the anti-centralists in the North, ruled the country ; and in 1866 the same gentleman indicated in a speech, I think before the Legislature of Georgia, that by a return to Congress the South might repeat the experiment with the same successful result. I read that speech at the time ; but I little WITHERING SARCASM. 2 I 7 thought I should live to see so near a fulfillment of its prediction. I see here to-day two great measures emanating, as I have said, not from a committee of either House, but from a Democratic caucus in which the South has an overwhelming majority, two-thirds in the House, and out of forty-two Senators on the other side of this Cham- ber professing the Democratic faith thirty are from the South twenty-three, a positive and pro- nounced majority, having themselves been parti- cipants in the war against the Union, either in military or civil station. So that as a matter of fact, plainly deducible from counting your fingers, the legislation of this country to-day, shaped and fashioned in a Democratic caucus where the con- federates of the South hold the majority, is the realization of Mr. Stephens' prophecy. And very appropriately the House under that control and the Senate under that control, embodying thus the entire legislative powers of the Government, deriving its political strength from the South, elected from the South, say to the President of the United States, at the head of the Executive Department of the Government, elected as he was from the North elected by the whole people, but elected as a Northern man ; elected on Repub- lican principles, elected in opposition to the party that controls both branches of Congress to-day they naturally say, ' You shall not exercise your constitutional power to veto a bill.' 2l8 LIFE OF JAMES G. ELAINE. "I do not profess to know, Mr. President, least of all Senators on this floor, certainly as little as any Senator on this floor, do I profess to know, what the President of the United States will do when these bills are presented to him, as I sup- pose, in due course of time, they will be. I cer- tainly should never speak a solitary word of dis- respect of the gentleman holding that exalted position, and I hope I should not speak a word unbefitting the dignity of the office of a Senator of the United States. But as there has been speculation here and there on both sides as to what he would do, it seems to me that the dead heroes of the Union would rise from their graves if he should consent to be intimidated and out- raged in his proper constitutional power by threats like these. "All the war measures of Abraham Lincoln are to be wiped out, say leading Democrats ! The Bourbons of France busied themselves, I believe, after the restoration in removing every trace of Napoleon's power and grandeur, even chiseling the " N " from public monuments raised to per- petuate his glory ; but the dead man's hand from Saint Helena reached out and destroyed them in their pride and in their folly. And I tell the Senators on the other side of this Chamber I tell the Democratic party North and South South in the lead and North following, that, the slow, unmoving finger of scorn, from the tomb of the WITHERING SARCASM 21 9 martyred President on the praries of Illinois, will wither and destroy them. Though dead he speaketh. "When you present these bills with these threats to the living President, who bore the com- mission of Abraham Lincoln and served with honor in the Army of the Union, which Lincoln restored and preserved, I can think only of one appropriate response from his lips or his pen. He should say to you with all the scorn befitting his station : 4 Is thy servant a dog that he should do this thing ? ' ' CHAPTER XVI. IRISH-AMERICAN AND GERMAN QUESTIONS. THE record of the Elaine family on all questions relating to American citizens of Irish descent, as well as the political position of Ireland and the Irish at home, has been marked and unmistak- able, going back as far as the Revolution and con- tinuing to the present hour. The blood of James G. Elaine is of the most direct Scotch-Irish, and he. has all the good qualities of that impetuous, earnest, affectionate, courageous and kind-hearted race. The following paragraph is from a trust- worthy source, and is known to be accurate by the oldest citizens of Washington and Cumberland Counties, in Pennsylvania : Prominent in the list of members of the "Friendly Sons of St. Patrick," for 1780, is the name of Colonel Ephraim Elaine, the grandfather of the "Plumed Knight." The society changed its name, in 1790, to "The Hibernian Society." No one could ever be a member unless of Irish birth or of direct Irish descent. The only exception ever made was in the case of General George Wash- ington, who was an adopted member. Among the distinguished men who have belonged to the 223 THE IRISH-AMERICAN QUESTION. 221 society are Matthew Mease, purser of the Bon- homme Richard, one of a family that afterward changed its name to Butler, to inherit some prop- erty in Ireland ; one member of it, Pierce Butler, married Fannie Kemble, the famous actress ; Thomas Read, commander of the Alliance frigate ; Thomas Fitzsimmons, of the Continental Congress; Robert Gray, of Gray's Ferry ; General Anthony Wayne, and many others. As the portrait of Marino Faliero, the traitor, is represented by a tablet in the collection of portraits of the Venetian Doges, so the one black sheep of the society is represented in the list of members by Captain Thomas Batt, whose name appears with the mar- ginal note : "Expelled for disloyalty to the col- onial cause." Mr. Blaine, no longer ago than the last Presi- dential election, wrote a letter of no uncertain import. The newspapers of England have ade- quate reason, from a selfish standpoint, for attack- ing Mr. Blaine. All our commercial interests are in conflict with England, and while that great country is secure in the knowledge that the United States will make no encroachments on its control of the world's trade, there will be nothing but praise from its statesmen and newspapers for the administration that happens to be in power in this country. But once let it be understood that the United States Government intends to advance its own interests and claim the supremacy that 222 LIFE OF JAMES G. ELAINE. belongs to it in the great South American and Eastern trade particularly then the English press, inspired by the government, which is their master, will contain nothing but adverse criticism and abuse of us. So it is just as well that Mr. Elaine is not popular in England. The following letter was written by Mr. Elaine to a very prominent and influential Irishman in Eastern Maine nearly four years ago : " AUGUSTA, Maine, Oct. 27, 1 880. " MY DEAR SIR : I received your friendly letter with much pleasure. Let me say, in reply, that the course of yourself and other Irish voters is one of the most extraor- dinary anomalies in our political history. Never, proba- bly, since the execution of Robert Emmett, has the feel- ing of Irishmen, the world over, been so bitter against England and Englishmen as it is at this hour. And yet the great mass of the Irish voters in the United States will, on Tuesday next, vote precisely as Englishmen would have them vote, for the interests of England. "Having seen Ireland reduced to misery and driven to despair by what they regard as the unjust policy of England, the Irishmen of America use their suffrage as though they were the agents and servants of the English Tories. The Free-traders of England desire nothing so much as the defeat of Garfield and the election of Han- cock. They wish to break down the protective tariff and cripple our manufacturers, and nine-tenths of the Irish voters in this country respond with alacrity, ' Yes, we will do your bidding, and vote to please you, even though it reduce our own wages, and take the bread from the mouths of our children.' THE IRISH-AMERICAN QUESTION. 223 " There are many able men and many clever writers among the Irish in America, but I have never met any one of them able enough or clever enough to explain this anomaly on any basis of logic and good sense. " I am glad to see, from your esteemed favor, that the subject is beginning to trouble you. The more you think of it the more you will be troubled, I am sure. And you will be driven finally to the conclusion that the prosperity of the Irish in this country depends as largely as that of any other class upon the maintenance of the financial and industrial policy represented by the Republican party. " Very truly yours, "JAMES G. ELAINE." Mr. Elaine can only increase in reputation and popularity by an examination of his course toward his fellow citizens of Germanic blood, and their kinsmen still in the Fatherland. It has been marked by consistent justice, kindliness and mutual regard. Thus he spoke from his heart when it became his agreeable duty to extend to certain distinguished Germans the hospitality of the Republic on a well-remembered occasion. It would be unfair to alter or curtail his own words in this instance, and his letter of invitation is accordingly appended. It was addressed to Mr. Andrew D. White, then U. S. Minister to Ger- many : " DEPARTMENT OF STATE, " Washington, July jo, 1881. " SIR: During the darkest period of the Revolution- ary War, a German soldier of character and distinction 2~4 LIFE OF JAMES G. ELAINE. tendered his sword in aid of American Independence. Frederick William Augustus, Baron Steuben, joined Washington at Valley Forge, in the memorable and dis- astrous winter of 1778. He attested the sincerity of his attachment to the patriot cause by espousing it when its fortunes were adverse, its prospects gloomy, and its hopes, but for the intense zeal of the people, well-nigh crushed. " The Baron Steuben was received by Washington with the most cordial welcome, and immediately placed on duty as inspector-general of the army. A detailed his- tory of his military career in America would form an epitome of the revolutionary struggle. He had served in the Seven Years' War on the staff of the great Fred- erick, and had acquired in the campaigns of that master of military science the skill and the experience so much needed by the untrained soldiers of the Continental army. The drill and discipline and effective organization which, under the commanding patronage of Washington, were at once imparted to the American army by the zeal and diligence of Steuben, transformed the volunteers and raw levies into veterans, who successfully met the British regulars in all. the campaigns of that prolonged struggle. " The final surrender of the British army under Lord Cornwallis occurred at Yorktown, Va., on the I9th day of October, 1781. Baron Steuben bore a most conspic- uous part in the arduous campaign which ended so aus- piciously for the Continental army, and it fell to his lot to receive the first official notification of the proposed capitulation, and to bear it to the illustrious commander- in-chief. " The centennial of that great event in American his- tory is to be celebrated with appropriate observances and ceremonies on the approaching anniversary. I am THE GERMAN QUESTION 225 directed by the President to tender, through you, an invi- tation to the representatives of Baron Steuben's family in Germany, to attend the celebration as guests of the Gov- ernment of the United States. You will communicate the invitation through the imperial minister of foreign affairs, and will express to him the very earnest desire of this government that it shall be accepted. " Those who come as the representatives of Baron Steu- ben's family will be assured, in our day of peace and prosperity, of as warm a welcome as was given to their illustrious kinsman in the dark days of adversity and war. They will be the honored guests of fifty millions of Americans, a vast number of whom have German blood in their veins and constitute one of the most worthy and valuable elements that make up the strength of the Republic. Intensely devoted, with patriotic fidelity to America, they yet retain and cherish and transmit the most affectionate memory of fatherland. . To these the visit of Baron Steuben's relatives will have something of the revival of family ties, while to all Americans, of what- ever origin, the presence of German guests will afford fitting opportunity of testifying their respect for that great country, within whose imperial limits are included so much of human grandeur atid human progress. " I am, sir, &c., " JAMES G. ELAINE." Eight of the descendants of Baron Steuben, including the present head of the family, with the consent and approval of their Government, accepted this invitation in the same spirit in which it was extended. They were so impressed with the treatment they received, not only from the 226 LIFE OF JAMES G. ELAINE. American Government and people generally, but in particular from Mr. Blaine, who was specially charged with their welfare, that they united in a report to the German Government after their return, asking that their personal thanks to him might be supplemented by some official expres- sion. Mr. Blaine thereupon received portraits of the Emperor, the Crown Prince and Prince Bis- marck, bearing their autograph signatures, and an autograph letter from the aged Emperor, con- veying acknowledgements of all the courtesies shown and expressions of personal esteem. This incident has not been forgotten by the German Americans in this country. After Mr. Elaine's nomination, Mr. William Mayer, editor and publisher of four independent German news- papers in New York, a morning and an afternoon daily, a weekly and a Sunday journal, all of large circulation, was asked his opinion of the candi- date. He replied, " I believe he is certain to be elected. It is quite true, that there is some hesi- tation among Germans, owing to reports that have been put in circulation by his opponents that he is a German hater and a temperance fanatic. I know Mr. Blaine too well to think for a moment that he is either. His invitation to the Steuben family, and his whole bearing toward them while they were in this country, are suffi- cient proof to me that he is no German hater." At the same time, Mr. Blaine did not confine THE GERMAN QUESTION. himself to civilities toward the Germans, or give room for the accusation that he sought the favor of the high rather than the lowly. He used all his influence with Germany, and strongly sup- ported the efforts of Minister White, in securing the proper settlement of all matters of dispute in regard to the nationality of our adopted citizens. This was the only serious question with Germany during his term, and his firmness contributed not a little to its satisfactory adjustment, especially in regard to Germany's new territory in Alsace- Lorraine, which was for a time, claimed not to be subject to the naturalization treatise made previ- ous to its acquisition. 14 CHAPTER XVII ENFRANCHISED OR DISFRANCHISED. WHETHER the negro ever should have been enfranchised, or, having received this weighty honor, whether he should be disfranchised, are problems that statesmen and philanthropists have grappled with in the by-gone years, and on it they have expended their best strength. L. Q. C. Lamar, Wade Hampton, Alexander H. Steph- ens, Wendell Phillips, James A. Garfield, Mont- gomery Blair, and troops of other giants upon either side have done valiant service for their respective views, but none of them has sounded a clearer note, nor struck it more forcefully than James G. Blaine. Questions of this character owe their origin not to any cooling of philanthropic interest, not to any novel or radical views about universal suf- frage, but to the fact that, in the judgment of many of those hitherto accounted wisest, negro suffrage has failed to attain the ends hoped for when the franchise was conferred ; failed as a means of more completely securing the negro's civil rights ; failed to bring him the consideration which generally attaches to power ; failed, indeed. 228 ENFRANCHISED OR DISFRANCHISED. 22Q to achieve anything except to increase the political weight and influence of those against whom, and in spite of whom, his enfranchisement was secured. For these reasons it has been thought that the enfranchisement of the negro was premature, and that even now it needs modification. There are not wanting those, too, who, on the ground of the alleged inferiority of the negro, will clamor against his right of franchise as it now exists, and would strip him of it wholly. On' the situation as thus outlined, Mr. Elaine has delivered himself as follows : "First. The two classes I have named, contem- plating the possible or desirable disfranchisement of the negro from entirely different standpoints, and with entirely different aims, are both and equally in the wrong. The first is radically in error in supposing that a disfranchisement of the negro would put him in the way of any develop- ment or progress that would in time fit him for the suffrage. He would instead grow more and more unfit for it every day from the time the first backward step should be taken, and he would relapse, if not into actual chattel slavery, yet into such a dependent and defenseless condition as would result in only another form of servitude. * # # * * * * The second class is wrong in anticipating even the remote possibility of securing the legal disfran- chisement of the negro without a reduction of 230 I. IKK OK JAMES r,. BLAINE. representation. Both sides have fenced for posi- tion on this question. * * * "Second. Hut, while discussing the question of the disfranchisement of the negro, and settling its justice or expediency according to our discretion, it may be worth while to look at its impractica- bility, or, to state it still more strongly, its impos- sibility. Logicians attach weight to arguments drawn ab inconvcnicnti. * * * The negro is secure against disfranchisement by two constitu- tional amendments, and he can not be remanded to the non-voting class until both these amend- ments are annulled. And these amendments can not be annulled until two-thirds of the Senate and two-thirds of the House of Representatives of the United States shall propose, and a maj'ority in the Legislatures or conventions of twenty-nine States shall, by affirmative vote, approve the annul- ment. In other words, the negro can not be dis- franchised so long as one vote more than one-third in the United States Senate, or one vote more than one-third in the House of Representatives, shall be recorded against it ; and if these securi- ties and safeguards should give way, then the disfranchisement could not be effected so long as a majority in one branch in the Legislatures of only ten States should refuse to assent to it, and refuse to assent to a convention to which it might be referred. No human right on this continent is more completely guaranteed than the right against ENFRANCHISED OR DISFRARCHISED. 23! disfranchisement on account of race, color or pre- vious condition of servitude, as embodied in the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. " Third. In enforcement and elucidation of my second point, it is of interest to observe the rapid advance and development of popular sentiment in regard to the rights of the negro as expressed in the last three amendments to the constitution of the United States. In 1 865 Congress submitted the Thirteenth Amendment, which merely gave the negro freedom, without suffrage, civil rights, or citi- zenship. In 1 866 the Fourteenth Amendment was submitted, declaring the negro to be a citizen, but not forbidding the States to withhold suffrage from him yet inducing them to grant it by the provi- sion that representation in Congress should be reduced in proportion to the exclusion of male citizens twenty-one years of age from the right to vote, except for rebellion or other crime. In 1869 the decisive step was taken of declaring that ' the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude.' A most important pro- vision in this amendment is the inhibition upon the ' United States ' as well as upon 'any State ;' for it would not be among the impossible results of a great political revolution, resting on preju- dice and grasping for power, that, in the absence 2^2 i. IF;: OF JA.MKS c, r. LA INT. of this express negation, the United States might assume or usurp the right to deprive the negro of suffrage, and then the States would not be sub- jected to the forfeiture of representation provided in the Fourteenth Amendment as the result of the denial or abridgement of suffrage by State; authority. In this stately progression of organic enactments the will of a great people is embodied, and its reversal would be one of those revolutions which would convulse social order and endanger the authority of law. There will be no step back- ward, but under the provision which specifically confers on Congress the power to enforce each amendment by 'appropriate legislation' there will be applied from time to time, fitfully perhaps and yet certainly, the restraining and correcting edicts of national authority. "Fourth. As I have already hinted, there will be no attempt made in the Southern States to dis- franchise the negro by any of those methods which would still be within the power of the State. There is no Southern State that would dare ven- ture on an educational qualification, because by the last census [1870] there were more than one million white persons over fifteen years of age, in the states lately slave-holding, who could not read a word, and a still larger number who could not write their names. There was, of courre, a still greater number of negroes of the same ages who could not read or write; but, in the nine years ENFRANCHISED OR DISFRANCHISED. 233 that have intervened since the census was taken, there has been a much greater advance in the edu- cation of the negroes than in the education of the poor whites of the South ; and to-day on an edu- cational cjualifkation it is quite probable that, while the proportion would be in favor of the whites, the absolute exclusion of the whites in some of the States would be nearly as great as that of the negroes. Nor would a property test operate with any greater advantage to the whites. The slave States always had a large class of very poor and entirely uneducated whites, and any qualification of property that would seriously diminish the negro vote would also cut off a very large number of whites from the suffrage. "The second interrogatory, ' Ought he to have been enfranchised?' is not practical but spec- ulative ; and yet, unless it can be answered with confidence in the affirmative, the moral tenure of his suffrage is weakened, and, as a consequence, his legal right to enjoy it is impaired. For myself, I answer the second question in the affirm- ative, with as little hesitation as I answered the first in the negative. And, if the question were again submitted to the judgment of Congress, I would vote for suffrage irk the light of experience with more confidence than I voted for it in the light of an experiment." CHAPTER XVIII. THE CHINESE QUESTION. WHEN the bill restricting Chinese immigration was passed, Mr. Blaine gave it his support. Mr. William Lloyd Garrison followed this action with some severe strictures upon j;he course pursued by those gentleman of the Senate "who stood with Mr. Blaine in this vote. To these reflec- tions Mr. Blaine replied in a letter already cited The document was full and frank, and its statements of facts were fortified by testi- monies of the most reliable character. He stated his reasons for his personal action in ten distinct propositions. He first contends that Chinese immigration is in no true and good sense immi- gration at all. Secondly, that those who come, whether males or females, are almost without exception, of the lowest and vilest classes. Thirdly, that those who have come do not assimilate with our nationalities, but ii language, dress, customs, and religion, remain separate and distinct as at the very first of their settlement on our shores. Their squalor and filth also separate them from all their American neighbors. His fourth point touches 234 THE CHINESE QUESTION. 235 the relation of Chinese to American labor. He says : " Is it not inevitable that a class of men living in this degraded and filthy condition, and on the poorest of food, can work for less than the Ameri- can laborer is entitled to receive for his daily toil? Put the two classes of laborers side by side, and the cheap servile labor pulls down the more manly toil to its level. The free white labor never could compete with the slave labor of the South. In the .Chinaman the white laborer finds only another form of servile competition in some aspects more revolting and corrupting than African slavery. Whoever contends for the unrestricted immigra- tion of Chinese coolies contends for that system of toil which blights the prospects of the white laborer dooming him to starvation wages, killing his ambition by rendering his struggles hopeless, and ending in a plodding and pitiable poverty. "Nor is it a truthful answer to say that this dan- ger is remote, Remote it may be for Mr. Garri- ron, for Boston, and for New England, but it is instant and pressing on the Pacific Slope. Already the Chinese male adults on that coast are well-nigh as numerous as the white voters of Cali- fornia, and it is conceded that a Chinese emigrant can be placed in San Francisco for one-half the amount required to transport a man from the Mississippi Valley to the Pacific coast, and for one-third what it requires for a New Yorker or 256 i. in-: OF JAMKS <;. W.AINE. New Englander to reach California or Oregon. The late Caleb Cushing, who had carefully studied the Chinese question ever since his mission to Peking in 1842, maintained that unless resisted by the United States the first general famine in China would be followed by an emigration to Cali- fornia that would swamp the white race." The probability is great that official endorsement would incalculably increase the immigration from China, the population of which is practically inex- haustible. So far as treaty obligations are con- cerned, Mr. Elaine holds that the Burlingame treaty did not in any sense contemplate such incoming of Chinese as has been realized, most of it being a forced departure to avoid punish- ment and penalties, and in no sense voluntary, and much of the remainder being from the pauper coolie class, which is never to be desired as an element of population in this or any civilized land. 14 A great deal," continues Mr. Elaine, 4 ' has been said about the danger to our trade if China should resort to some form of retaliation. The natural and pertinent retaliation is to restrict American immigration to China. Against that we will enter no protest, and should have no right to do so. The talk about China closing her ports to our trade is made only by those who do not understand the question. Last year the total amount of our exports to all Chinese ports, outside THE CHINESE QUESTION". 237 of Hong Kong, was but $692,000. I have called Hong Kong a Chinese port, but ever)' child knows that it is under British control, and if we were at war with China to-day Hong Kong would be as open to us as Liverpool. To speak of China punishing us by suspending trade is only the suggestion of dense ignorance. We pay China an immense balance in coin, and probably we always shall do it. But if the trade question had the importance which some have erroneously attributed to it, I would not seek its continuance by permitting a vicious immigration of Chinese coolies. The Bristol merchants cried out that commerce would be ruined if England persisted in destroying the slave trade. But history does not record that England sacrificed her honor by yielding to the cry," Returning again to the relation of this subject to the labor question, Mr. Blaine says : " There is not a laboring man from the Penobscot to the Sacramento who would not feel aggrieved, out- raged, burdened, crushed, by being forced into competition with the labor and the wages of the Chinese coolie. For one I will never consent by my vote or my voice to drive the intelligent work- ingmen of America to that competition and that degradation." CHAPTER XIX. AMERICAN SHIP-BUILDING AND COMMERCE. How earnestly Mr. Elaine pleaded for the revi- val of American ship-building and commerce was shown briefly in the chapter presenting him as an American of the Americans. This vital sub- ject is very dear to his heart, and his eloquent tongue has often plead for it. In January, 1881, he- replied to Senator Beck, of Kentucky, who had made a speech in favor of admitting free of duty foreign ships built to American Registers. This reply was made on the spot and without specific preparation or data, except such as memory recalled at the moment. Having referred to the concession of Senator Beck, that his proposal did look toward a permanent dependence upon Eng land for our ships, Mr. Blaine continued : " It is a fact equally remarkable that for the past twenty-five years or make it only for the past twenty years, from the beginning of the war to this hour, the Congress of the United States has not done one solitary thing to uphold the navi- gation interests of the United States. Decay has been observed going on steadily from year to year. The great march forward of our commer- AMERICAN SHIP-BUILDING AND COMMERCE. 239 cial rival of old has been witnessed and every- where recognized, and the representatives of the people of the United States have sat in their two houses of legislation as dumb as though they could not speak, and have not offered a single remedy or a single aid. And this has gone on until now the Senator from Kentucky rises in his seat and proposes to make a proclamation of per- petual future dependence of this country upon England for such commerce as she may enjoy, holding up as models to us Germany, Italy, and the other European countries that are as abso- lutely dependent upon Great Britain for what commerce they enjoy as the District of Columbia is for its legislation upon the Congress of the United States. "During these years, in which Congress has not stepped forward to do one thing for the for- eign commerce of this country, for all that vast external transportation whose importance the Sen- ator from Kentucky has not exaggerated, but has strongly depicted, the same Congress has passed ninety-two acts in aid of internal transportation by rail ; has given 200,000,000 acres of the pub- lic lands, worth to-day a thousand million dollars in money, and has added $70,000,000 in cash, and yet, I repeat, it has extended the aid of scarcely a single dolla- to build up our foreign commerce. LIFE OF JAMKS C;. lil.AINK "Mr. President, fas cst ab hostedoceri; it is always lawful to be taught by an enemy. Great Britain has been our great commercial rival, and since the first Cunard steamship came into Boston, just about forty years ago, when Great Britain, see- ing that steam was to play so great and command- ing a part in the navigation of the world first made her venture, from that time down to the close of 1878, she had paid from her treasury, to aid great steamship lines all over the world, a sum exceed- ing forty million pounds sterling, more than two hundred millions of American dollars. I know it is a favorite argument with those who occupy the position of the honorable Senator from Kentucky that Great Britain started upon this plan and fol- lowed it for a long period of years, and afterward abandoned it. Sir, she has never abandoned it. She has only abandoned its extension to those lines that were strong enough to go alone, and the British post-office report for the year 1879 shows that under the despised and ridiculed head of postal aid, to which the honorable Senator from Kentucky was pleased to refer with such sneers, Great Britain paid last year ,783,000, well-nigh four million dollars in coin. " France gets her steamships from England. France has adopted the commercial policy which the honorable Senator from Kentucky thinks would be the revival of the American shipping interest; but does France, by the mere fact of get- AMERICAN SHlP-BCtLDtNG AND COMMERCE. 2.\l ting her ships built at Birkenhead, or on the Clyde, abandon the plan, which has been for thirty years in operation under her government, of aiding her ships ? Why, sir, last year France paid 23,000,000 francs more than four and a half million dollars to aid her steamship lines. And when the celebrated line of France, the company known as Messageries Imperiale, competed too sharply in the Mediter- ranean waters after the opening of the Suez Canal, when that great French company competed with the Peninsular and Oriental Company of England, and was likely to endanger its supremacy by a sharp rivalry, Great Britain promptly stepped forward and added ,100,000 to the Peninsular and Oriental subsidy. That is the way Great Britain has abandoned the idea of aiding her great commercial interests ! "Italy, that is hemmed in upon a lake, with a territory that does not touch either of the great oceans, is running np largely in steam-navigation ; Italy last year paid 8,000,000 francs ; and even Austria, that enjoys but a single seaport on the upper end of the Adriatic, pays $500,000 toward stimulating commercial ventures from Trieste. Now, the United States cannot succeed in this great international struggle without adopting exactly the same mode that^ has achieved victory for France. What is it ? It is not to help A B or C D or E F or anybody else by name, neither Mr. John Roach, nor Mr. John Doe, nor Mr. 242 LIFE OF JAMF.S C,. Ul.AINK. Richard Roe, but to make a great ana compre- hensive policy that shall give to every company a pledge of aid from the Government of so much per mile for such a term of years. Let the Amer- ican merchants feel that the Government of the United States is behind them. Let the United States take from her Treasury per annum the $4,000,000 that Great Britain is paying as a post- script to her $200,000,000 of investment ; let the United States but take $400,000 per annum and that is not a great sum for this opulent coun- try let that be used as a fund to stimulate any company from any port of the United States to any foreign port, and, without being a prophet or the son of one, I venture to predict that you will see that long-deferred, much-desired event, the revival of the American merchant marine." Mr. Blaine followed by urging that our costly and useless Navy Yard system be abolished in the main, and its cost be devoted to the promo- tion of American shipping. After further illus- tration of his subject, he finally said : " It is idle to fight against the inventions of the world ; it is idle for us to fold our arms and suppose that wooden vessels are to maintain any- thing like the importance they have hitherto had in the commerce of the world. I think I under- stand something of that subject. I have the honor to be from the state that has built more wooden vessels than all the rest of this Union AMERICAN SHIP-BUILDING AND COMMERCE. 243 beside, I believe. Within thirty miles of my own residence is a town of only ten thousand people, which is the largest wooden ship-building place on the globe to-day. I know some little of that subject ; and while the days of wooden-ships are by no means over, while they will be a great and needful auxiliary in the commence of the world, yet it is manifest and is proven that the great highways of international commerce, such as the North Atlantic, the West India seas, the route from San Francisco to Asia, that from San Fran- cisco to Melborne, and in various and sundry and divers other directions, will be occupied, and occupied almost to the exclusion of sailing-vessels, by the ocean steamers. The United States can take a great part in that race ; they can take a great part in it just whenever they make up their mind that the instrumentality by which England conquered is the one one which we must use ; they can take it whenever they make up their minds that a mercantile marine and naval estab- lishment must grow and go together hand in hand, and that the Congress of the United States is derelict in its duty if it passes another naval appropriation bill without accompanying it in some form with some wise and forecasting provision looking also to the upbuilding of the American merchant marine." Two years previous to the discussion described above, Mr. Elaine put himself very decisively on 244 I-Il'E OF J AMKS G. ULAINE. record in an extended speech in the Senate favor- ing a reduction of the Navy and encouraging American shipping. He had presented two amendments, one looking to a reduction in the number of Navy officers to the lowest point con- sistent with the authorized size of the Navy, and also to the reduction of the number of our navy yards, provided that the efficiency of the naval establishment of the country should not thereby be impaired. The other amendment provided that appointments to the rank of midshipman, from graduates of the United States Naval Academy, should be made only as vacancies occurred, and only on the basis of their standing at graduation. The speech reviewed exhaustively the facts con- cerning our navy and navy yards as then existing, comparing them with the establishments of other great naval powers, and showing the disadvan- tage against our methods. Having shown the good ground presumably existing in favor of retrenchment in the navy, Mr. Blaine addressed himself to its allied topic, the development of the American mercantile marine. He said : "Three-fourths, I do not know but I may over- state it, but certainly one-half the report of the Secretary of the Navy is devoted to the commerce of the country, and a very able report it is. It does him honor. I certainly am not out of order in discussing on the naval bill that to which the head of the department himself devotes so large AMERICAN SHIP-BUILDING AND COMMERCE. 245 a portion of his report. I say again, that what may be saved out of the naval appropriation will do that which I have already adverted to for American commerce. We do not show any of this, can I call it stinginess, in any other depart- ment. We have given 200,000,000 acres of public land to railroads ; we have now given $60,000,000 in money ; and taking the value of those lands and the value of that money, and adding them together, it is safe to say that we have endowed railroads in this country with $500,000,000. " From 1846 to 1871 the Congress of the United States passed ninety-one acts for promoting the building of railroads. There has not been much legislation since 1871. There has been a reaction against the policy, but from 1846 to 1871, I repeat, a period of twenty-five years, the Congress of the United States passed ninety-one different acts, and endowed the railroad system of this country with $500,000,000 of money, and that $500,000,000 of money produced more than $5,000,000,000 of money in this country. My judgment is that the Congress of the United States in everything they did in that respect did wisely. They cheapened freights. Clinton's ditch, as it used to be called, was sneered at when it was an experiment, but the minute the water was let into it it reduced the freights that had been $100 from Buffalo to New York down to $7 a ton ; 246 LIFE OF JAMES G. ELAINE. and it is not an exaggeration to say that at that day, before railroads were among us, the water that was let in from Lake Erie to that canal added $100,000,000 to the value of the farms west of it. " As individuals, cities, towns, counties, states, a nation, we have exerted ourselves to the utmost point of enterpise and Vigor to build up railroads. We have a system that outruns all the world, and with great trunk lines threading the continent, north, south, east and west, in every direction. The very moment we reach the ocean limit, we seem to think we have done our duty, and that when we have got transportation to that point it no longer interests us, and we can safely give that over to the foreigner. Why, from Chicago to Liverpool is one direct line. I wonder how it would sound if Mr. Vanderbilt, who is running a line of steamships manned by foreign men, com- manded by foreign officers, built in foreign yards, whose money earnings go entirely outside of this country, were to apply that to the New York Central Railroad, and select all the brakemen and switchmen and conductors and tenders and officers on the Central Railroad from foreigners ; to put on it locomotives that are all made in England ; to let all its earnings be exported. Such a policy would not be one particle more det- rimental and destructive to the interests of this country than for us when that Central Railroad had touched salt water with all the countless pro- AMERICAN SHIP-BUILDING AND COMMERCE. 247 ducts of the fertile West to give up all the profits of participation in the transportation of them beyond. From Chicago to Liverpool is a route of four thousand miles. We operate one thous- and miles of it and give three thousand miles to the foreigner. " Mr. President, I will state my views on this subject, and I shall take the privilege of bringing the Senate to some vote that will test its sense on that question. My idea is that the Government of the United States should give to any man or company of men aid from the treasury of the United States if he or they shall establish and maintain a line of steamships to any foreign port, or I might limit it to European, South American, and Asiatic ports. I would invite competition from San Francisco, from Portland, Oregon, from Galveston, from New Orleans, from Mobile, from Savannah, Charleston, Wilmington, Norfolk, Bal- timore, New York, Boston, Portland, and every- where. I would let all come in who can sustain it. The touchstone is what will be sustained by the trade, and that you can safely leave to the instinct and to the knowledge of American com- mercial men." CHAPTER XX. MUNICIPAL DEBT. IN an address upon Municipal Debt, Mr. Elaine reviewed the history of these encumbrances, in all lands, and then spoke of the debts incurred by nations, states, counties, and cities or towns. These forms of public debts, he pronounced a "quadru- plicate burden" to carry which every man and every piece of property, in some way must con- tribute its share. "When the city is pledging its credit," said Mr. Elaine, "it seems to forget that a heavy debt is already upon the county of which it forms an integral part ; the county freely incurs debt without apparently remembering that every estate in it is already encumbered by a direct tax to pay the interest on a debt of the State ; and the State too often makes lavish use of its credit without pausing to reflect that every one of its citizens is already burdened by the tax which he is paying to liquidate the debt of the nation. And when in the end nation, and State, and county, and city have each and all imposed their burdens, the citizen finds that while the tax is increased fourfold, the property to meet it has not expe- 248 MUNICIPAL DEBT. 249 rienced a similar development and growth." This power of indefinitely contracting municipal debt, was amply illustrated, and its folly scattingly ex- posed as the orator proceeded. In approaching the practical conclusions of this whole matter, the distinguished speaker said : "In regard to the aggregate Municipal debt of the country, it is not of course to be inferred that it could all have been wisely avoided. Credit, pru- dently used and safely guarded, is one of the great engines of modern civilization and advancement, and with Municipal Governments its uses at times seems imperatively demanded. In many cases the public health has required that debt be con- tracted for supplies of pure water and for systems of drainage and sewerage, and occasionally for other forms of public improvement essential to the growth of the community. But in the main, I think our cities have been too ready to draw on the future, to ready to pledge the ' lives and for- tunes ' of posterity to the payment of a debt which the generation contracting it is unable to dis- charge. Expensive Municipal buildings, loan of credit to outside enterprises, not needed and often visionary, have led in some large cities to a growth of debt for which there is no corresponding return of pecuniary profit, and no adequate advantage in any form. It is so easy to obtain Legislative authority to contract debts ; it is so easy to sell a good city bond to the capitalist who highly prizes 250 I.IM: ni-- IA.MI.S <;. IJI.AIM-:. such forms of security ; it is so easy to roll up a debt to be taken care of by those who come after us, instead of levying a severe tax to be paid by ourselves ; in short, it is so easy and, alas ! so nat- ural to have a smooth, enjoyable time to-day, thinking 1 little of the ills that may overtake us on the morrow." The influences of such debts in diverting capi- tal which might otherwise be actively employed and in unreasonably advancing the rate of interest were next discussed, and thus the way was pre- pared for the question, what is the remedy ? To this query Mr. Blaine gave answer as follows : " First and foremost, an awakened, active, well- balanced public judgment, which will suggest, demand and enforce a wise caution and conserva- tive course on this subject. I have no patent remedy to propose, and yet I venture to suggest that the Legislatures of many States have alto- gether too large a power to create debt without referring the subject to the people for their pri- mary consideration. Perhaps I may entertain a pre-judgment on this particular phase of the ques- tion in favor of the stringent provision in the Con- stitution of my own State, where the Legislature has no power to incur a dollar's debt except for war purposes, under the pressure of actual dan- ger, and where an amendment to the Constitution proposed by two-thirds of the Legislature and then submitted to a vote of the people, is a pre- MUNICIPAL DEBT. S^I requisite for pledging the credit of the State for any other purpose whatever. " It might also be a wise and salutary provision to define in State Constitutions the precise ends for which municipal credit should be used limit- ing those uses to proper and restricted objects, and forbidding in any event the creation of a debt beyond a specified per centage of the official valuation of the city or town ; providing at the same time a judicious safeguard against the over- lapping of county debts, so that while the town was guarding its credit with care it should not be involved in the embarrassment caused by an extravagant extension of the credit of the county. "And finally, as a governing principle, it would be well to apply to all State, county and municipal debts, the wise precaution contained in that famous and well-remembered rule laid down by Mr. Jefferson as the basis of all sound national credit: " ' Never consent to borrow a dollar without laying a tax at the same instant, for paying the interest annually, and the principal within a given term ; and consider that tax as pledged to the creditors on the public faith. On such a pledge as this, sacredly observed, a government may always command, on a reasonable interest, all the lendable money of its citizens ; whilst the necessity of an equivalent tax is a salutary warning to them and their constituents against oppression, bank- ruptcy, and its inevitable result, revolution." 1 CHAPTER XXI. IRREDEEMABLE PAPER CURRENCY. ON the money question Mr. Elaine stands among the soundest and most advanced financiers, and has always stood there. In addition to illustra- tions already given of this fact some points may be cited from his speech on this subject, which was delivered in the House of Representatives, February loth, 1876, a date prior to the resump- tion of specie payment in our land. The financial situation of the day was thus stated in the open- ing paragraph of the speech : " For more than two years the country has been suffering from prostration in business ; confidence returns but slowly ; trade revives only partially ; and to-day, with capital unproductice and labor unemployed, we find ourselves in the midst of an agitation respecting the medium with which business trans- actions shall be carried on. Until this question is definitely adjusted it is idle to expect that full measure of prosperity to which the energies of our people and the resources of the land entitle us. "If," said Mr. Elaine as he proceeded on this topic, " there was any one principle that was 252 IRREDEEMABLE PAPER CURRENCY. 253 rooted and grounded in the minds of our earlier o statesmen, it was the evil of paper-money ; and no candid man of any party can read the Consti- tution of the United States and not be convinced that its formers intended to protect and defend our people from the manifold perils of an irredeemable currency. Nathaniel Macon, one of the purest and best of American statesman, him- self a soldier of the Revolution and a member of Congress continuously during the administration of our first six Presidents, embracing in all a, period of nearly forty years, expressed the whole truth when he declared in the Senate that ' this was a hard-money government, founded by hard- money men, who had themselves seen and felt the evil of paper-money and meant to save their posterity from it.' " To this uniform adherence to the specie standard the crisis of the Rebellion forced an exception. In January, 1862, with more than half a million of men in arms, with a daily expenditure of nearly two millions of dollars, the Government suddenly found itself without money. Customs yielded but little, internal taxes had not yet been levied, public credit was feeble, if not paralyzed, our armies had met with one signal reverse and nowhere with marked success, and men's minds were filled with gloom and apprehension. The one supreme need of the hour was money, and money the Government did not have, What, 254 LIFE OF |AMi:s (',. IM.AINE. then, should be done rather, what could be done ? The ordinary Treasury note had been tried and failed, and those already issued were discredited and below the value of the bills of country banks. The Government in this great and perilous need promptly called to its aid a power never before exercised. It authorized the issue of one hundred and fifty millions of notes, and declared them to be a legal tender for all debts, public and private, with two exceptions. "The ablest lawyers who sustained this measure did not find warrant for it in the text of the Con- stitution, but like the late Senator Fessenden, of my own State, placed it on the ground of 'abso- lute, overwhelming necessity ; ' and that illustri- ous Senator declared that, 'the necessity existing, he had no hesitation.' Indeed, sir, to hesitate was to be lost, for the danger was that, if Con- gress prolonged the debate on points of constitu- tional construction, its deliberation might be interrupted by the sound of artillery on the oppo- site shore of the Potomac. The Republican Senators and representatives, therefore, dismiss- ing all doubts and casuistry, stood together for the country." CHAPTER XXII. PURITY OF THE BALLOT-BOX. ON December nth, 1878, Mr. Elaine delivered one of his most effective speeches. A resolution introduced by himself was then pending. It pro- vided for inquiry into certain alleged frauds in elections then recently held in the Southern States. Mr. Elaine opened by rehearsing the current rumors concerning these abuses and pressed his proposed inquiry in these words : " The issue thus raised before the country, Mr. President, is not one of mere sentiment for the rights of the negro though far distant be the day when the rights of any American citizen, however black or however poor, shall form the mere dust of the balance in any controversy ; nor is the issue one that involves the waving of the " bloody shirt," to quote the elegant venacular of Democratic vituperation ; nor still further is the issue as now presented only a question of the equality of the black voter of the South with the white voter of the South ; the issue, Mr. President, has taken a far wider range, one of portentous magnitude ; and that is, whether the white voter of the North shall be equal to the white voter of 255 256 LIFE OF JAMES G. ELAINE. the South in shaping the policy and fixing the destiny of this country ; or whether, to put it still more baldly, the white man who fought in the ranks of the Union Army shall have as weighty and influential a vote in the Government of the Republic as the white man who fought in the ranks of the rebel army. The one fought to uphold, the other to destroy, the Union of the States, and to-day he who fought to destroy is a far more important factor in the Government of the nation than he who fought to uphold it. " Let me illustrate my meaning by comparing groups of States of the same representative strength North and South. Take the States of South Carolina, Mississippi, and Louisiana. They send seventeen Representatives to Con- gress. Their aggregate population is composed of ten hundred and thirty-five thousand whites and twelve hundred and twenty-four thousand colored ; the colored being nearly two hundred thousand in excess of the whites. Of the seventeen repre- sentatives, then, it is evident that nine were apportioned to these States by reason of their colored population, and only eight by reason of their white population; and yet in the choice of the entire seventeen Representatives the colored voters had no more voice or power than their remote kindred on the shores of Senegambia or on the Gold Coast. The ten hundred and thirty- five thousand white people had the sole and PURITY OF THE BALLOT-BOX. 257 absolute choice of the entire seventeen Represen- tatives. In contrast, take two States in the North, Iowa and Wisconsin, with seventeen Representa- tives. They have a white population of two million, two hundred and forty-seven thousand considerably more than double the entire white population of the three Southern States I have named. In Iowa and Wisconsin, therefore, it takes one hundred and thirty-two thousand white population to send a Representative to Congress, but in South Carolina, Mississippi, and Louisiana, every sixty thousand white people send a Repre- sentative. In other words, sixty thousand white people in those Southern States have precisely the same political power in the government of the country that one hundred and thirty-two thousand white people have in Iowa and Wisconsin." Mr. Elaine then proceeded to quote from the fourteenth amendment, and to show therefrom that this superior power of the Southern voter was not by reason of law or justice, but in disregard and defiance of both. He said : " The patent, unde-niable intent of this provision was that if any class of voters were denied, or in any way abridged in their right of suffrage, then the class so denied or abridged should not be counted in the basis of representation ; or, in other words, that no State or States should gain a large increase of representation in Congress by reason of counting any class of population not 258 LIFE OF JAMES G. BLAINE. permitted to take part in electing such Repre- sentatives. But the construction given to this provision is that before any forfeiture of represen- tation can be enforced the denial or abridgment of suffrage must be the result of a law specifically enacted by the State. Under this construction every negro voter may have his suffrage absolutely denied or fatally abridged by the violence, actual or threatened, of irresponsible mobs, or by frauds and deceptions of State officers from the Governor down to the last election clerk, and then, unless some State law can be shown that authorizes the denial or abridgment, the State escapes all penalty or peril of reduced representation. This construc- tion may be upheld by the courts, ruling on the letter of the law, " which killeth," but the spirit of justice cries aloud against the evasive and atrocious conclusion that deals out oppression to the innocent and shields the guilty from the legitimate consequences of wilful transgression. "The political power thus appropriated by Southern Democrats, by reason of the negro population, amounts to thirty-five Representatives in Congress. It is massed almost solidly and offsets the great State of New York ; or Penn- sylvania and New Jersey together ; or the whole of New England ; or Ohio and Indiana united ; or the combined strength of Illinois, Minnesota, Kansas, California, Nevada, Nebraska, Colorado, PURITY OF THE BALLOT-BOX. 259 and Oregon. The seizure of this power is wanton usurpation ; it is flagrant outrage ; it is violent perversion of the whole theory of republican gov- ernment. It inures solely to the present advan- tage, and yet, I believe, to the permanent dishonor of the Democratic party. It is by reason of this trampling down of human rights, this ruthless seizure of unlawful power that the Democratic party holds the popular branch of Congress to-day, and will, in less than ninety days, have control of" this body also, thus grasping the entire legislative department of the Government through the unlawful capture of the Southern States. -.j: # :j: # : :j: & # " And this injustice is wholly unprovoked. I doubt if it be in the power of the most searching investigation to show that in any Southern state during the period of Republican control any legal voter was ever debarred from the freest exercise of his suffrage. Even the revenges which would have leaped into life with many who despised the negro were buried out of sight with a magnanimity which the ' superior race ' fail to follow and seem reluctant to recog- nize. I know it is said in retort of such charges against the Southern elections as I am now reviewing that unfairness of equal gravity pre- vails in Northern elections. I hear it in many quarters, and read it in the papers, that in the late exciting election in Massachusetts intimidation 16 26O LIFE OF JAMES G. BLAINE. and bull-dozing, if not so rough and rancor- ous as in the South, were yet as widespread and effective. " I have read, and yet I refuse to believe, that the distinguished gentleman, who made an energetic but unsuccessful canvass for the gov- ernorship of that state, has indorsed and approved these charges, and I have accordingly made my resolution broad enough to include their thorough investigation. I am not demanding fair elections in the South without demanding fair elections in the North also. But venturing to speak for the New England States, of whose laws and customs I know something, I dare assert that in the late election in Massachusetts, or any of her neigh- boring Commonwealths, it will be impossible to find even one case where a voter was driven from the polls, where a voter did not have the fullest, fairest, freest opportunity to cast the ballot of his choice, and have it honestly and faithfully counted in the returns. Suffrage on this continent was first made universal in New England, and in the administration of their affairs her people have found no other appeal necessary than that which is addressed to their honesty of conviction and to their intelligent self-interest. If there be any- thing different to disclose, I pray you show it to us that we may amend our ways. SfC IjS V 3jt S|S tjt SJC "I know something of public opinion in the PURITY OE THE BALLOT-BOX. 261 North. I know a great deal about the views, wishes and purposes of the Republican party of the nation. Within that entire great organiza- tion there is not one man, whose opinion is entitled to be quoted, that does not desire peace and harmony and friendship and a patriotic and fraternal union between the North and the South. This wish is spontaneous, instinctive, universal, throughout the Northern States ; and yet, among men of character and sense, there is surely no need of attempting to deceive ourselves as to the precise truth. First pure, then peaceable. Gush will not remove a grievance, and no disguise of state rights will close the eyes of our people to the necessity of correcting a great national wrong. Nor should the South make the fatal mistake of concluding that injustice to the negro is not also injustice to the white rrmn ; nor should it ever be forgotten that for the wrongs of both a remedy will assuredly be found. The war, with all its costly sacrifices, was fought in vain useless equal rights for all classes be established in all the states of the Union ; and now, in words which are those of friendship, however differently they may be accepted, I tell the men of the South here on this floor, and beyond this chamber, that even if they could strip the negro of his constitutional rights they can never permanently maintain the inequal- ity of white men in this nation ; they can never 1 make a white man's vote in the South doubly as 262 LIFE OF JAMES G. ELAINE. powerful in the administration of the government as a white man's vote in the North. " In a memorable debate in the House of Com- mons, Mr. Macaulay reminded Daniel O'Connell, when he was moving for repeal, that the English whigs had endured calumny, abuse, popular fury, loss of position, exclusion from Parliament, rather than the great agitator himself should be less than a British subject ; and Mr. Macaulay warned him that they never would suffer him to be more. Let me now remind you that the Government under whose protecting flag we sit to-day sacrificed myriads of lives and expended thousands of mil- lions of treasure that our countrymen of the South should remain citizens of the United States, hav- ing equal personal rights and equal political privileges with all other citizens. And I venture, now and here, to warn the men of the South, in the exact words of Macaulay, that we will never suffer them to be more ! " It need hardly be said that this brilliant conclu- sion was greeted with hearty applause, to suppress which required the vigorous use of the President's gavel. The plea was- effective in securing the desired investigation, and it is characteristic of the frank, fearless and forcible manner in which Mr. Blaine meets every great question. CHAPTER XXIII. AN AFTER-DINNER SPEECH. To make a good after-dinner speech has time out of mind been regarded as the crucial test of a genial, jovial, splendid soul. So much of the severer side of Mr. Blaine has been shown in the extracts from his speeches already given, that it might be supposed he was always the statesman and the orator. But he has a side of the very sunniest kind, and to illustrate it the occasion of the dinner of the New England Society, of New York, may be cited. At this distinguished gath- ering, on December 23d, 1878, the President of the Society, Mr. D. T. Appleton, introduced Mr. Blaine, not as a New Englander by birth, but as a fit representative of that section, and called upon him to respond to this toast: "New England Character Adapted to every requirement ; it fits her sons not only to fill, but to adorn every station." Mr. Blaine began his remarks thus: "The President has kindly relieved me from a personal explanation. I am only a brother-in-law. [Laugh- ter.] And brothers-in-law are useful in families [renewed laughter], and in a New England family, 263 264 LIFE OF JAMES G. BLAINK. where modesty is the prevailing fault, and where you can rarely get one of the direct blood and descent to say anything in praise of his race, it is, perhaps, meet and proper that, unembarrassed by any consideration of personal prudery, I can speak my mind freely about you all. I never saw New England till I was a man grown, but I have lived more than half my life on its soil, and I have six children, who represent the ninth generation in descent from the old Massachusetts colonists. And I am hot ashamed to say, Mr. President, in any presence, recollecting as I always do, with pride, my Pennsylvania birth and my Scotch and Scotch-Irish ancestry I am not afraid or ashamed to say in any presence, that in the settlement of" this continent, and the shaping and moulding of its institutions, the leading place, the chief merit belongs to New England. [Applause.] Why, every -chapter of its history is weighty with momentous events. A small number came in 1620; there was no immigration to speak of till 1630; there was none after 1640. And the 21,000 men that came in those brief years are the progenitors of a race that includes one-third of the people of the United States of America. They are the progenitors of a race of people twice as numerous as all who spoke the English language in the world when they came to these shores." Mr. Elaine having next sketched rapidly the deeds of the New England colonists and their AN AFTER-DINNER SPEECH. 265 descendants, resumed his lighter vein again, say- ing: : "Well, that this race has been abused and o reviled, is, of course, inevitable. You remember the old gentleman in the London club. When he was fumbling with his watch chain, somebody, complimenting him on its strength, said : ' Of course it is strong. There is nary a pickpocket in London as hasn't taken a tug at it in his day.' There is hardly anybody who has not taken a hand in abusing the Yankee race. I never heard it abused in quite so eloquent a manner as by our friend of the Central Railroad this evening. [Laughter.] Now, in enjoying the dinner of the New England Society of New York and I almost catch my breath when I say the New England Society of New York you do not know how we regard it in New England. There are a great many men in New England who aspire to get into Congress, first the House, and then the Senate and then the Cabinet, and then, under the inspira- tion of the strong air and the mountain scenery of Vermont, aspire still higher. [Turning round to Mr. Evarts a movement which provoked loud laughter.] But that is only the few. The one thing which every boy, as he grows up in New England, however, looks forward to as the crown- ing glory of his life, is to dine some day with the New England Society of New York. Without this, his sum of human happiness is not complete. I have received your invitation for many years 266 LIFE OF JAMF.S G. BLAINE. past, but it has been my misfortune never to have been able to be present until now, and I am here this evening to acknowledge all the pleasure I enjoy in the present, and to express my regret for all that I have missed in the past ! " Here, again, Mr. Blaine indulged for a few moments in a more serious vein, and then said : " Mr. President, I should like to see this splendid company seated at a typical New England feast of the olden time ; a feast spread on tables that came over in the May Flower ; you can find plenty of them ! [Laughter] the guests seated on chairs that belonged to John Alden and Miles Standish ; and no well-regulated New England family is without a broken assortment of them. [Loud laughter.] I should like to see a feast thus cele- brated that should reproduce, as far as might be, the harder times and the coarser fare which they endured, that we, their descendants, and we, their friends, might enjoy the more bounteous and more elegant repast with which we are indulged to-day. And I should like, Mr. President, to impress upon every New Englander, whether seated at the primitive table of coarse fare or the modern table of costly luxury, that with one voice we echo the declarations of our distinguished friend, the Sec- retary of the Treasury, in favor of an honest dol- lar, and that with equal faith we believe in an honest ballot ! " Great and prolonged applause greeted this AN AFTER-DINNER SPEECH. 267 utterance, after which the speaker closed with the following brilliant peroration : " Mr. President, I thank you very sincerely, I thank you all, gentlemen of the New England Society, more than I can express, for the cordiality of your welcome. And in this brilliant scene, in this grand and delightful meeting, in this assem- blage, surrounded with everything that gives com- fort and grace and elegance to social life, in this meeting, protected by law, and itself representing law, let me recall one memory always present with me on such occasions, and that is the sadness if sadness may be protruded upon a meeting such as this the sadness which I feel when I remem ber the men who, in 1620, landed on the Plymouth shore, and did not survive the first year. For of all the men engaged in great and heroic contests, those, I think, are most to be commiserated and most to be sympathized with who, making all the sacrifices and enduring all the hardships, are not permitted to enjoy any of the triumphs or the blessings. It was Quincy who died before the first shot was fired in the Revolution he did so much to create ; it was Warren who died when the first shot was fired ; it was Reynolds who, when rallying his corps for the doubtful and criti- cal battle of Gettysburg, fell before he knew its fate ; it was McPherson, in the great march to the sea, who lost his life before he knew the issue of that daring and almost romantic expedition. For 268 I. IKK OF JAMES G. ELAINE. these and all such, from Plymouth Rock to the last battle-field of the rebellion, that perished in their pride, and perished before they knew that what they were dying for should succeed, I offer, and I am sure you will join with me in offering, our pro- found veneration, our respectful homage." CHAPTER XXIV. THE PLUMED KNIGHT. THE title of "Plumed Knight," for Mr. Elaine, at once struck the popular fancy, and was eagerly adopted. It seemed to express both his gallant and chivalric bearing, and that quality of leader- ship that lead his party to follow him as enthusias- tically and victoriously as the army of Navarre did the white-decked hemlet of their King. An earlier allusion of the same sort is claimed for " Tom Fitch," the "silver-tongued orator" of the Pacific coast, but the general use of the phrase dates from the eloquent speech of Robert G. Ingersoll, in pre- senting Mr. Elaine's name to the Republican Con- vention of 1876. This will justify the insertion of the most important passages of the speech in these pages. Mr. Ingersoll then said : " The Republicans of the United States demand as their leader in the great contest of 1876 a man of intel- ligence, a man of integrity, a man of well-known and approved political opinions. They demand a statesman. They demand a reformer after, as well as before, the elec- tion. They demand a politician in the highest, broadest, and best sense a man of superb moral courage. They demand a man acquainted with public affairs, with the 269 270 LIFE OF JAMES G. ELAINE. wants of the people, with not only the requirements of the hour, but with the demands of the future. They demand a man broad enough to comprehend the relations of this Government to the other nations of the earth. They demand a man well versed in the powers, duties, and prerogatives of each and every department of this Government. They demand a man who will sacredly preserve the financial honor of the United States ; one who knows .enough to know that the national debt must be paid through the prosperity of this people ; one who knows enough to know that all the financial theories in the world cannot redeem a single dollar ; one who knows enough to know that all the money must be made, not by law, but by labor ; one who knows enough to know that the people of the United States have the industry to make the money and the honor to pay it over just as fast as they make it " The Republicans of the United States demand a man who knows that prosperity and resumption, when they come, must come together ; that when they come they will come, hand in hand, through the golden harvest fields; hand in hand by the whirling spindles and the turning wheels ; hand in hand past the open furnace doors ; hand in hand by the flaming forges ; hand in hand by the chimneys filled with eager fire, greeted and grasped by the countless sons of toil. This money has to be dug out of the earth. You cannot make it by passing reso- lutions in a political convention. " The Republicans of the United States want a man who knows that this Government should protect every citizen at home and abroad ; who knows that any govern- ment that will not defend its defenders, and protect its protectors, is a disgrace to the map of the world. They THE PLUMED ANIGHT. 27! demand a man who believes in the eternal separation and divorcement of church and school. They demand a man whose political reputation is spotless as a star ; but they do not demand that their candidate shall have a certificate of moral character signed by a confederate congress. The man who has, in full, heaped, and rounded measure, all these splendid qualifications, is the present grand and gallant leader of the Republican party James G. Elaine. " Our country, crowned with the vast and marvelous achievements of its first century, asks for a man worthy of the past and prophetic of her future ; asks for a man who has the audacity of genius ; asks for a man who has the grandest combination of heart, conscience, and brain beneath her flag such a man is James G. Elaine. For the Republican host, led by this intrepid man, there can be no defeat. " This is a grand year a year filled with the recollec- tions of the Revolution ; filled with proud and tender memories of the past ; with the sacred legends of liberty a year in which the sons of freedom will drink from the fountains of enthusiasm a year in which the people call for a man who has preserved in Congress what our soldiers won upon the field a year in which they call for the man who has torn from the throat of treason the tongue of slander ; for the man who has snatched the mask of Democracy from the hideous face of rebellion ; for the man who, like an intellectual athlete, has stood in the arena of debate and challenged all comers, and who is still a total stranger to defeat. " Like an armed warrior, like a plumed knight, James G. Elaine marched down the halls of the American Con- gress and threw his shining lance full and fair against the brazen foreheads of the defamers of his country and the 272 LIFE OF JAMES G. BLAINE. maligncrs of her honor. For the Republican party to desert this gallant leader now is as though an army should desert their general upon the field of battle. " James G. Blaine is now and has been for years the bearer of the sacred standard of the Republican party. I call it sacred, because no human being can stand beneath its folds without becoming and without remaining free. " Gentlemen of the Convention : In the name of the great Republic, the only Republic that ever existed upon this earth ; in the name of all her defenders and of all her supporters ; in the name of all her soldiers living ; in the name of all her soldiers dead upon the field of battle, and in the name of those who perished in the skeleton clutch of famine at Andersonville and Libby, whose sufferings he so vividly remembers, Illinois Illinois nominates for the next President of this country that prince of par- liamentarians, that leader of leaders, James G. Blaine." Mr. Elaine's knightly conquests have not been made on the fields of martial strife. Some, in their anxiety to disparage, may make this as a point against him and his conceded title, but though his pre-eminent abilities for statesmanship have kept him constantly in civil employment, it is certain that there is no warmer friend of the soldiers and sailors who actually did the fighting for the Union in their many bloody battles. From the very first outbreak of the war until he left Congress he was foremost in advocating every measure that could add to the efficiency of the armies in the field, comfort or reward the nation's brave defenders, and relieve their widows and THE PLUMED KNIGHT. 273 children from danger of want. His earnest o sympathy made him from the first a sharer in all the aspirations, interests and wishes of the soldier on the field. A volunteer officer who served with conspicuous usefulness recently said that what sent him to the war was the accidental hearing of a speech of Mr. Elaine's in the Maine legislature, in reply to the ablest constitutional lawyer in that body, who had denied the right of the Federal government to resist secession, and advocated a peace policy. Mr. Elaine was Speaker, but descended from the chair, and in eloquent words not only overturned the legal sophistries of his opponent, but set forth the duty of every true American in the impend- ing crisis in a manner that roused the deepest and most effective enthusiasm. From that time there was no question about the aid of Maine in the vigorous prosecution of the war. So it will be found in examining Mr. Elaine's record through- out that he has always been on the side of the soldier, never against him, and so he will continue while life and energy remain to him, knightly in his spirit, soldierly in his deeds. CHAPTER XXV. OUT OF POLITICS. As soon as President Arthur had passed the difficulties natural to such an unexpected begin- ning of a new Administration, and was in no danger of embarrassment from this course, Mr. Elaine pressed for an immediate acceptance of the resig- nation which he had tendered along with those of the other members of Mr. Garfield's cabinet. After such a year, even his iron constitution craved a release from care, if not from occupation, and he was anxious to return to private life. It was a pleasant home to which he returned, endeared to him first of all by the society of his family, and, in a degree, only second to this, by the beloved company of his books, of which he has drawn around him the best of all ages. Works of art, also, are not missing from his walls. He does not regard the aesthetic rule that engrav- ings and paintings should not hang in the same apartment, for there are engravings in every room, and paintings are not on that account excluded. The gem of them all is the picture of " Charles II. and his Court," painted by Sir Peter Lely in 1668, and which Mr. Elaine was fortunate 274 OUT OF POLITICS. 275 enough to acquire at the sale, a few years ago, of some old effects of Lord Baltimore. Among his curiosities is a large, number of autographs, including those of Dickens, Thackeray, E. B. Lytton, Gladstone, Gambetta, and other famous cotemporaries, inscribed on pictures presented by themselves. In this pleasant retirement, all the more enjoyable after twenty-five years of strife, Mr. Blaine found ample occupation in that historical work which he had proposed to himself some years before, and to which he devoted himself with the same thorbughness that has before been described as part of his character. For the first time, perhaps, he was a profound disappointment to his friends. Contented with his position, engrossed with his private interests and with flattering offers for literary work, beyond what he could execute in years by the utmost diligence, Mr. Blaine declined to take part in politics, even to aid his own candidacy for the highest office in the land. No entreaties by those who thought that he was defeating the hopes of his admirers could shake this resolution, and, as it turned out, he was wiser than they. Not disdaining the prospective nomination, yet largely grown indif- ferent to it, Mr. Blaine knew that it would come to him, if at all, by the spontaneous movement of the Republican masses, over-ruling those in control of the machinery of the party. This move- 17 276 LIKE OF JAMES (1. 15I.AINE. ment he could not strengthen, but only perhaps weaken, by going down into the thick of the fray, and employing the same tactics as those who were eagerly seeking their own aggrandizement. So the voice of the people calling him from his retirement, came to him, not exactly at the plow, like Cincinnatus, but swinging in a hammock on the lawn of his pleasant summer home at Augusta, and it was whispered through a telephone to the ear of his daughter, to whom it conveyed much more pleasurable excitement than to him. Here the present narrative necessarily leaves him. He has had trials and struggles, but has surmounted them all. He is strong in the affec- tion of a host of friends in all parts of the Union. His name is written high on the page of honor. No cloud hovers upon the horizon of his life. The people after twelve years waiting and two disap- pointments, have wrung from the politicians the right to vote for him for the most exalted dignity in the world, the chief magistracy of over fifty millions of freemen, and unless all signs fail he will take his place in the White House on the Fourth of March, to continue the work which fell from the hand of Garfield, and to be in a sense beyond his predecessors for man)- years an American President of the Americans. " Nihil quod tctigit lion oruai'it." CHAPTER XXVI. MR. ELAINE'S ASSOCIATE. As a fitting conclusion to this part of our work, and as a fitting introduction to the fuller con- sideration of Elaine's associate in candidacy beyond, General Logan's farewell to the "Army of the Tennessee " is here inserted : "HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE TENNESSEE. " Officers and Soldiers of the Army of the Ten- nessee: "The profound gratification I feel in being authorized to release you from the onerous obli- gations of the camp, and return you, laden with laurels, to homes where warm hearts wait to welcome you, is somewhat embittered by the painful reflection that I am sundering the ties that trials have made true, time made tender, suffering made sacred, perils made proud, hero- ism made honorable, and fame made forever fearless of the future. It is no common occasion that demands the disbandonment of a military organization, before the resistless power of which, mountains bristling with bayonets have bowed, 277 278 LIFE OF JAMES G. ELAINE. cities have surrendered, and millions of brave men been conquered. Although I have been but a short period your commander, we are not strangers. Affections have sprung up between us during the long years of doubt and gloom, war and carnage, which have passed, and which \vc have passed through together, nurtured by com- mon perils, sufferings and sacrifices, and riveted by the memories of gallant comrades, whose bones repose beneath the sod of an hundred battle-fields, nor time nor distance will weaken or efface. The many marches you have made, the dangers you have despised, the haughtiness you have humbled, the duties you have discharged, the glory you have gained, the destiny you have discovered for the country, in \vhose cause you have conquered, all recur at this moment in all the vividness that marked the scenes through which we passed. From the pens of the ablest historians of the land, daily are drifting out upon the current of time, page upon page, volume upon volume of your deeds, and, floating down to future generations, will inspire the student of history with admiration, the patriot American with veneration for his ancestors, and the lover of republican liberty, with gratitude for those who in a fresh baptism of blood re-consecrated the powers and energies of the Republic to the cause of constitutional freedom. Long may it be the happy fortune of each and every one of MR. ELAINE S ASSOCIATE. 279 you to live in the full fruition of the boundless blessings you have secured to the human race. "Only he whose heart has been thrilled with admiration for your impetuous and unyielding valor in the thickest of the fight, can appreciate with what pride I can recount the brilliant achieve- ments which immortalize you, and enrich the pages of our National history. Passing by the earlier, but not less signal triumphs of the war, in which most of you participated, and inscribed upon your banners such victories as Donaldson and Shiloh, I recur to campaigns, seiges, and vic- tories that challenge the admiration of the world, and elicit the unwilling applause of all Europe. Turning your backs upon the blood-bathed heights of Vicksburg, you launched into a region swarm- ing with enemies, fighting your way and marching, without adequate supplies, to answer the cry for succor that came to you from the noble but beleagured army at Chattanooga. " Your steel next flashed among the mountains of the Tennessee, and your weary limbs found rest before the embattled heights of Missionary Ridge, and there with dauntless courage you breasted again the enemy's destructive fire, and shared with your comrades of the Army of the Cumberland the glories of a victory, than which no soldier can boast a prouder. "In that unexampled campaign of vigilant and vigorous warfare from Chattanooga to Atlanta, 280 I UK OF IAMFS <;. r.i AINE. you freshened your laurels at Resaco, grappling with the enemy behind his works, hurling him back dismayed and broken. " Pursuing him from thence, marking your path with the graves of the fallen, you again triumphed over superior numbers at Dallas, fighting your way from there to Kenesaw Mountain, and under the murderous artillery that frowned from its rug- ged heights, with a tenacity and constancy that finds few parallels, you labored, fought and suf- fered through the broiling rays of a Southern mid-summer sun, until at last you planted your colors upon its topmost heights. "Again, on the 22d of July, 1864, rendered memorable through all time for the terrible strug- gle you so heroically maintained under discour- aging disasters, and that saddest of all reflections, the loss of that exemplary soldier and popular leader, the lamented McPherson, your matchless courage turned defeat into a glorious victory. Ezra Chapel and Jonesboro, added new lustre to a radiant record, the latter unbarring to you the proud gate city of the South. "The daring of a desperate foe in thrusting his legions northward, exposed the country in your front, and though rivers, swamps and enemies opposed, you boldly surmounted every obstacle, beat down all opposition and marched onward to the sea. Without any act to dim the brightness of your historic page, the world rang plaudits MR. ELAINE'S ASSOCIATE. 281 when your labors and struggles culminated at Savannah, and the old ' Starry Banner' waved once more over the walls of one of our proudest cities of the seaboard. Scarce a breathing spell had passed when your colors faded from the coast, and your columns plunged into the swamps of the Carolinas. The sufferings you endured, the labors you performed and the successes you achieved in those morasses, deemed impassable, forms a cred- itable episode in the history of the war. Poca- taligo, Charleston, and Raleigh, Salkahatchie, Edisto, Branchville, Orangeburgh, Columbia and Bentonville, are names that will ever be suggestive of the resistless sweep of your columns throcgh the territory that cradled and nurtured, from whence was sent forth on its mission of crime, misery and bloodshed, the disturbing and disor- ganizing spirit of secession and rebellion. "The work for which you pledged your brave hearts and brawny arms to the Government of your fathers, you have nobly performed. You are seen in the past gathering in the darkness that enveloped the land, rallying as the guardians of man's proudest heritage, forgetting the thread unwoven in the loom, quitting the anvil and aban- doning the work-shops to vindicate the supremacy of the laws and the authority of the Constitution. Four years have you struggled in the bloodiest and most destructive war that ever drenched the earth with human gore ; step by step you have 282 LIFE OF JAMES G. BLAINE. borne our standard, until to-day over every fort- ress and arsenal that rebellion wrenched from us, and over city, town and hamlet from the lakes- to the gulf, and from ocean to ocean, proudly floats the 'Starry Emblem' of our National unity and strength. "Your rewards, my comrades, are the welcoming plaudits of a grateful people, the consciousness that in saving the republic, you have won for your country renewed respect and power at home and abroad, that in the unexampled era of our growth and prosperity that dawns with peace, their attaches mightier wealth of pride and glory than ever before to that loved boast, ' / am an American citizen' "In relinquishing the implements of war, for those of peace, let your conduct ever be that of warriors in time of war, and peaceful citizens in the time of peace. Let not the lustre of that bright name that you have won as soldiers be dimmed by any improper act as citizens, but as time rolls on let your record grow brighter and brighter still. " JOHN A. LOGAN, " Major- General, Commanding. "LOUISVILLE, KY., July I3th, 1865." A man who can review such a record, and who did his full soldierly share in it all, is a fit asso- ciate for him whose biography has here been sketched the Hon. James Gillespie Elaine. RKCORD Chicago, June 3-6, 1884. 283 CHAPTER I. THE CONVENTION. CHICAGO is never a quiet place, nor does excessive modesty mark the average resident of that goodly city, but the early days of June, 1884, saw it a busier city than usual, its streets swarmed with men headed by bands of music, and not overwhelmed with a modest or retiring spirit. An observer of these scenes said : "The crowds are great and noisy, the bands are numerous and brassy, as are other blowers of human kind." On Monday there was an atmospheric tempest, with rain and hail, thunder and lightning, but it was a mere ripple compared to that which raged about the Palmer House, where rumor said a dicker had been made which turned an instructed and pledged delegation into channels other than that fore-ordained for them. There were other storm-centres developed where the thunders of profanity rolled, and where wit and logic flashed, but the peace was kept in a general way, and preparations went on vigorously for the great meeting of Tuesday. 285 286 Tin: During all of Saturday night and Sunday an army of carpenters, gas fitters and decorators had toiled in the work of remodeling the great hall to meet the requirements of the approaching Convention. The first five rows of seats in the centre and seven on either side were taken out, leaving a space of thirty feet between the stage and that portion of the hall reserved for the dele- gates. In this space rows of tables to accommo- date three hundred working members of the press were placed. The stage and rafters of the build- ing were gaily decorated with flags and bunting, and from the galleries, which run in a semi-circle around the hall, the arms of each State and Ter- ritory were hung. The hall will accommodate about 9000 persons. Members of the National Committee spent the greater portion of Sunday superintending these changes, all of which were completed by Monday noon. All the delegations were officially requested to be prepared to report to the Convention, upon its temporary organization on Tuesday, their officers and committee-men, and that the names of the State and Territorial delegations be sent to the National Committee before the Convention meets. These precautions went far toward simplify- ing the act of getting to work on the opening day. Affairs were in charge of the National Republican Committee, DWIGHT M. SABIN, Min- THE CONVENTION. 287 nesota, Chairman ; JOHN A. MARTIN, Kansas, Secretary. The scene at the place of meeting on the morning of June 3d was full of interest. It is known tech- nically as Exposition Building, and stands on Michigan avenue, where a degree of freshness of the better sort manifests itself. In front of the building assembled at an early hour at least ten thousand eager, restless and pushing people. They were confronted by a series of doors, labelled, numbered, lettered and policed. Committee intel- ligence pointed one and all to their respective places of entrance, but nobody appeared to know what to do. Consequently they pushed, screamed and yelled. There was some ill-nature, but it was an American crowd, after all, and by eleven o'clock their was a great assemblage in the immensely large hall, where not more than a fifth can hear more than a tenth of the words of wit or wisdom. There is a huge platform, in the fore front of which is the chairman's desk, draped with flags, decorated with a huge basket of flowers and made typical by an immense gilt eagle in front. On either side are tables, for secretaries and officers. Back of these, in tiers, are ladies in quantities and men of note by the bushel. Immediately in front of the platform on two tiers of platforms are tables, occupied by newspaper men of all sorts and con- ditions. This, by the way, is a curious phase of ink. Some journals of no great circulation or 288 THE CONVENTION. influence have five or six men, while the largest metropolitan papers are content with two. The hall itself is divided into three sections. First, the body looks like an entire acre of heads, occupied by delegates, about whom are rows of private boxes, occupied by ladies and guests ; second, by a gallery of raised seats at the end opposite the platform, and then two long stretches of galleries. Into this vast space pour the people pell-mell and higgly-piggedly delegates, alter- nates, guests and all sorts. .The band played all manner of pieces while the crowds came in. Among the members of the United States Senate present at the opening were Senators Aldrich, of Rhode Island ; Blair, of New Hamp- shire ; Hoar, of Massachusetts ; Platt, of Con- necticut ; Miller, of New York ; Miller, of Cali- fornia ; Sewell, of New Jersey ; Mahone, of Vir- ginia ; Palmer, of Michigan ; Conger, of Michi- gan ; Harrison, of Indiana ; Cullom, of Illinois ; Sabin, of Minnesota ; Plumb, of Kansas ; Man- derson, of Nebraska ; Bowen, of Colorado ; Dolph, of Oregon, and Jones, of Nevada ; and among the representatives in Congress, Messrs. Boutelle, Millikan and Dingley, of Maine ; Stew- art, of Vermont ; Long and Rice, of Massachu- setts ; Skinner, Burleigh and \Vadsworth, of New York ; William Walter Phelps, of New Jersey ; Baynet and Bingham, of Pennsylvania; -Halton of Maryland; Libby, of Virginia; O'Hara, of THE CONVENTION. 29! North Carolina ; Mills, of South Carolina ; Jef- fards, of Mississippi ; Kellogg, of Louisiana ; Houk and Pettibone, of Tennessee ; Ochiltree, of Texas ; McKinley, Robinson and Hart, of Ohio ; Calkins, Browne, Peele and Steele, of Indiana ; Thomas, Davis and Adams, of Illinois ; Wash- burne, of Minnesota ; Hoar, of Michigan ; An- derson and Morrell, of Kansas and Valentine, of Nebraska. Generals, colonels and governors were as thick as flies in pea time, and old stagers were multitudinous, one of them being black Fred Douglass, with white hair and a white wife. Soon after the hour of noon, Senator Sabirr, Chairman of the National Committee, called the Convention to order by three raps of the gavel, and introduced the Rev. Frank Bristor, of Chi- cago, who opened the proceedings with prayer. Senator Sabin then delivered his opening address, in which he said that Chicago was known as Con- vention City. It was the field of Republican vic- tory. Here it was that that immortal patriot, Abraham Lincoln, was chosen ; here the party chose that great chieftain, General Grant ; here it nominated that honored soldier, that great states- man, that representative citizen, James A. Gar- field. [Cheers.] Every action of the party on this historic ground has been followed by victory. Having succeeded against its opponents on all former occasions, it was about to put its house in order for another conflict. As a consequence of 2Q2 THE CoNVKNTIitN. a vote adopted by the last Convention, the present body is largely made up of men instructed by their own constituents, and it was therefore to be hoped that the voice of the people would be largely puissant in its deliberations. [Applause.] Mr. Sabin concluded by nominating Hon. Powell Clayton, of Arkansas, for Chairman pro ton., but the Convention, by a vote of -431 to 387, chose to this post the Hon. John R. Lynch, of Mississippi, an act which indicated that the spirit of independent action was abroad in the Conven- tion. After considerable discussion on minor matters, and the settlement of some preliminary business, the great body adjourned for the day, all its members seemingly at sea as to the coming nominees. Soon after eleven o'clock on Wednesday, June 4th, the Convention reassembled, Chairman Lynch presiding. At once the scene became animated with the multitude of communications, resolutions, and similar offerings which were thrust before the House, only to be referred right and left to the various committees. After con- siderable discussion and oratory, the Committee on Permanent Organization reported, recommend- ing as Permanent Chairman, General J. B. Hend- erson, of Missouri, who, upon taking his post, made the regulation speech of thanks, distributing his complimentary words on all sides, and to all the possible candidates for the honors of the Con- THE CONVENTION. 293 vention. More resolutions, on all manner of topics, were received and referred, and so the work of the day closed, the main committees not being ready to make their reports. Little was accomplished in this day's work, so far as appeared on surface, but one of the keenest and most experienced of the observers on the floor summed up the situation at the close, thus : "The situation, as it stands to-night, is simple enough. Elaine is stronger than any individual candidate. But the field is stronger than he. His friends will stand together, and when the field undertakes to make combinations, it is more than likely enough, votes will slip through their fingers to give the needed help to Elaine. Kansas will probably give him eighteen instead of thirteen, and every gain of five votes counts ; and Ohio is wavering, so far as John Sherman is concerned. It may not be palatable, but two and two must make four, and if the problem had to be solved to-night, Elaine would be the nominee." Early in the proceedings the name of General W. T. Sherman was much mentioned in connec- tion with the first nomination, but the old warrior routed this combination by a telegraphic bomb to this effect : " I would not accept the nomination if tendered me. I would not serve if I was elected. "W. T. SHERMAN." is 294 THE CONVENTION. The meetings of Thursday opened at 10.54 A. M., Bishop Fallows, of the Reformed Episco- cal Church, leading in prayer, after which a unanimous report from the Committee on Cre- dentials was read and adopted. Rules of order were then adopted, somewhat modifying the former methods of procedure, and the platform was presented and approved amid great applause. An adjournment was then voted until 7.30 P. M., when nominations of candidates were to be made as the special order of business, the pre- liminaries now having been completed. CHAPTER II. PERSONELLE OF THE CONVENTION. So often is the question asked as to the mem- bers of the great Conventions, and so seldom are accurate lists of delegates to be had, that the per- sonelle of the body in full and in detail is here added. ALABAMA. At-Large. George Turner, Montgomery. George W. Braxdall, Talladega. Charles C. Sheats, Decatur. Jesse C. Duke, Selma. Districts. I. James E. Slaughter, Mobile. Frank H. Threet, Demopolis. 2. Paul Strobach, Montgomery. George W. Washington, Montgomery. 3. Isaac Heymad, Opelika. William Youngblood, Union Springs. 4. William J. Stevens, Selma. Hugh A. Corson, Haynesville. 5. Lewis E. Parsons, Jr., Rockford. William J. Anthony, La Fayette. 6. Algernon A. Mabson, Birmingham. Lewis J. Washington, Tuscaloosa. 7. Robert A. Moseley, Jr. Talladega. Arthur Bingham, Talladega. 8. Augustus W. McCullough, Huntsville. Peter J. Crenshaw, Athens. 295 296 PERSONELLE OF THE CONVENTION. ARKANSAS. At-Large. Powell Clayton, Eureka Springs. Logan H. Roots, Little Rock. M. W. Gibbs, Little Rock. Henry M. Cooper, Little Lock. Districts, i . Jacob Trieber, Helena. Samuel H. Holland, Dermott 2. John H. Johnson, Augusta. Ferd Harris, Pine Bluff. 3. A. A. Tufts, Camden. George H. Thompson, Louisville. 4. Mason W. Benjamin, Little Rock. John Yoes, Mountainburg. 5. La Fayette Gregg, Fayetteville. Kidder Kidd, BentonvilU. CALIFORNIA. At-Large. William W. Morrow, San Francisco. George A. Knight, Eureka. Thomas R. Bard, Huenma. Horace Davis, San Francisco. Districts. I. Chauncey C. Bash, Redding. B. O. Carr, St. Helena. 2. William H. Parks, Marysville. George W. Schell, Modesto. 3. William Johnson, Sacramento. Eli S. Dennison, Oakland. 4. David McClure, San Francisco. Charles F. Crocker, San Francisco. 5. Adolph B. Spreckels, San Francisco. Maurice C. Blake, San Francisco. 6. David C. Reed, San Diego. Oregon Saunders, Visalia. CONNECTICUT. At-Large. Augustus Brandegee, New London. Frederick Miles, Chapinville. Samuel E. Merwin, Jr., New Haven. John L. Houston, Thompsonville. PERSONELLE OF THE CONVENTION. 297 Districts. I. Val. B. Chamberlain, New Britain. Ralph P. Gilbert, Hebron. 2. Luzerne I. Munson, Waterbury. John G. Edmonds, Deep River. 3. Eugene S. Boss, Willimantic. Ira G. Briggs, Voluntown. 4. Orsamus R. Filer, Torrington. Ebenezer J. Hill, Norwalk. COLORADO. At- Large. S. H. Elbert, Denver. B. F. Crowell, Colorado Springs. William A. Hammill, Georgetown. C. C. Davis, Leadville. A. L. Emigh, Fort Collins. Alexander Gullet, Gunnison. DELAWARE. At-Large. Washington Hastings, Wilmington. John Pilling, Newark. George V. Massey, Dover. Daniel I. Layton, Georgetown. District. I. John H. Hoffecker, Smyrna. W. J. Stewart, Seaford. FLORIDA. At-Large. Dennis Eagan, Jacksonville. Joseph E. Lee, Jacksonville. Jesse D. Cole, Monticello. William G. Stewart, Tallahassee. Districts. I. James N. Coombs, Apalachicola. A. C. Lightborne, Quincy. 2. W. H. Chandler, Ocala. John G. Long, St. Augustine. * GEORGIA. At-Large. A. E. Buck, Atlanta. W. A. Pledger, Atlanta. 298 PERSONELLE OF THE CONVENTION. At- Large. L. M. Pleasants, Savannah. C. D. Forsythe. Rome. Districts, i. A. N. Wilson, Savannah. James Blue, Brunswick. 2. C. W. Arnold, Albany. Caesar Few, Thomasville. 3. Elbert Head, Americus. E. Seward Small, Eastman. 4. W. H. Johnson, Atlanta. J. C. Beall, La Grange. 5. John E. Bryant, Atlanta. W. D. Moore, Atlanta. 6. W. W. Brown, Macon.. P. O. Holt, Macon. 7. G. P. Burnett, Rome. J. Q. Gassett, Cartersville. 8. Mark A. Wood, Madison. Madison Davis, Athens. 9. W. T. B. Wilson, Atlanta. James B. Gaston, Gainesville. 10. W. F. Holden, Augusta. R. R. Wright, Augusta. ILLINOIS. At- Large. Shelby M. Cullom, Springfield. John M. Hamilton, Bloomington Burton C. Cook, Chicago. Clarke E. Carr, Galesburg. Districts, i. J. L. Woodward, Chicago. Abner Taylor, Chicago. 2. W. H. Ruger, Chicago. C. E. Piper, Chicago. Contestants. W. S. Powell, Chicago. W. E. Kent, Chicago. 3. George R. Davis, Chicago. J. R. Wheeler, Chicago. 4. Samuel B. Raymond, Chicago. L. C. Collins, Jr., Norwood Park. PERSONELLE OF THE CONVENTION. 299 S)istiv*s. 5. L. M. Kelly, Elgin. C. E. Fuller, Belvidere. 6. Norman Lewis, Thomson. O. C. Town, Pecatonica. 7. I. G. Baldwin, Yorkville. Henry T. Noble, Dixon. 8. R. W. Willett, Yorkville. A. J. Bell, Napierville. 9. S. T. Rogers, El Paso. Thomas Vennum, Watseka. 10. W. W. Wright, Toulon. R. H. Whiting, Peoria. 11. C. V. Chandler, Macomb. C. A. Ballard, New Boston. 12. A. C. Mathews, Pittsfield. W. W. Berry, Quincy. 13. Dr. William Jayne, Springfield. Dietrich C. Smith, Pekin. 14. J. W. Fifer, Bloomington. George G. Ingham, Clinton. , 15. Charles G. Eckhart, Tuscola. L. S. Wilcox, Champaign. 16. Charles Churchill, Albion. Harrison Black, Marshall. 17. John I. Rinaker, Carlinville. J. M. Truitt, Hillsboro. 18. R. A. Halbert, Belleville. H. F. Reuter, Nashville. 19. T. S. Ridgway> Shawneetown. C. T. Stratton, Mt. Vernon. ao. F. M. Simpson, Vienna. William McAdams, Chester. INDIANA. At-Large. Richard W. Thompson, Terre Haute. Benjamin Harrison, Indianapolis. John H. Baker, Goshen. Morris McDonald, New Albany. 3OO PERSONELLE OF THE CONVENTION. Districts. I. James C. Veatch, Rockport. Francis B. Posey, Petersburg. 2. George C. Reilly, Vincennes. William R. Gardner, Washington. 3. D. M. Alspaugh, Salem. Albert P. Charles, Seymour. 4. John O. Cravens, Osgood. Eugene G. Hay, Madison. 5. Joseph I. Irwin, Columbus. W. A. Montgomery, Spencer. 6. Charles H. Burchenal, Richmond. Joshua H. Mellett, New Castle. 7. L. T. Michener, Shelbyville. Henry C. Adams, Indianapolis. 8. William C. Smith, Williamsport. William R. McKeen, Terre Haute. 9. George B. Williams, La Fayette. Americus C. Dailey, Lebanon. 10. Simon P. Thompson, Rensselaer. George W. Holman, Rochester. 11. James B. Kenner, Huntington. Jonas Votaw, Portland. 12. Oscar S. Simons, Fort Wayne. Orville Carter, Angola. 13. Joseph D. Oliver, South Bend, George Moon, Warsaw. IOWA. At- Large. J. S. Clarkson, DCS Moines. W. G. Dorman, Independence. J. Y. Stone, Glenwood. N. M. Hubbard, Cedar Rapids. Districts. I. D. A. Morrison, Fort Madison. William Wilson, Jr., Washington. 2. John Hilsinger, Sabula. W. T. Shaw, Anamosa. 3. H. C. Memenway, Cedar Falls. W. H. Norris, Manchester. PERSONELLE OF THE CONVENTION. 30 1 Districts. 4. A. G. Stewart, Waukon. O. H. Lyon, Rockford. 5. J. W. Willett, Tama City. Merritt Green, Marshalltown. 6. H. S. Winslow, Newton, Calvin Manning, Ottumwa. 7. C. H. Gatch, Des Moines. E. W. Meeks, Guthrie Centre. 8. W. H. Christie, Chester. W. W. Wilson, Osceola. 9. E. A. Consigny, Avoca. T. M. C. Logan, Logan. 10. R. S. Benson, Hampton. C. C. Mason, Boone. 11. J. B. Funk, Spirit Lake. J. D. Ainsworth, Oran. KANSAS. At-Large. P. B. Plumb, Washington, D. C. J. B. Merritt, Wamego. J. A. Wood, Wellington. A. W. Mann, Jewell City. Districts, i. H. E. Insley, Leavenworth. C. Leland, Troy. 2. R. Aikman, Fort Scott. J. B. Root, Wyandotte. 3. George R. Peck, Topeka. William Martindale, Madison. 4. J. W. Addy, Newton. A. J. Hoisington, Great Bend. 5. C. E. Culp, Salina, E. A. Berry, Marysville. 6. J. R. Hallowell, Columbus. W. P. Hackney, Winfield. 7. J. S. McDowell, Smith Centre. C. C. Woods, Rooks Centre. KENTUCKY. At-Large. Walter Evans, Washington, D. C. William O. Bradley, Lancaster. 3O2 PERSONELLE OF THE CONVENTION, At- Large. William W. Culberson, Ashland. John W. Lewis. Springfield. Districts, i. Edwin Farley, Owensborough. P. C. Bragg, Mayfield. 2. J. Z. Moore, Owensborough. James J. Landis, Hopkinsville. 3. W. L. Hazslip, Glasgow Junction. Allen Allensworth, Bowling Green. 4. G. P. Jolly, Cloverport. Edward Hilpp, Lebanon. 5. Silas F. Miller, Louisville. John Mason Brown, Louisville. 6. Davie N. Comingove, Covington. James A. Scarlett, Newport. 7. William Cassius Goodloe, Lexington. Richard P. Stoll, Lexington. 8. Robert Boyd, London. George Denny, Jr., Lancaster. 9. George M. Thomas, Vanceburg. T. S. Bradford, Augusta. 10. Andrew J. Auxier, Louisville. J. C. Eversole, Hazard. n. R. A. Buckner, Greensburg. H. G. Tremble, Somerset. LOUISIANA. At-Large. William P. Kellogg, Washington. A. J. Dumont, New Orleans. P. B. S. Pinchback, New Orleans. A. S. Badger, New Orleans. Districts, i . W. B. Merchant, New Orleans. R. F. Guichard, New Orleans. 2. P. F. Heonig, New Orleans. Henry Demas, Edgar. 3. George Drury, Napoleonville. L. A. Martinet, St. Martin. 4. A. H. Leonard, Shreveport. William Harper, Shreveport. PERSONELLE OF THE CONVENTION. Districts. 5. Frank Morey, Washington. E. W. Wall, Vidalia. 6. Louis J. Souer, Marksville. Clifford Morgan, New Roads. MAINE. At- Large. Josiah H. Drummond, Portland. George C. Wing, Auburn. Joseph R. Bodwell, Hallowell. Joseph S. Wheelwright, Bangor. Districts, i. Albion Little, Portland. Charles B. Hussey, Biddeford. 2. Amos F. Crockett, Rockland. Ruel B. Fuller, East Wilton. 3. J. Manchester Haynes, Augusta. Andrew J. Wiswell, Augusta. 4. Austin Harris, East Machias. Elbridge A. Thompson, Dover. MARYLAND. At-Large. Hart B. Holton, Washington, D. C. Thomas S. Hodson, Crisfield. Lycurgus N. Phillips, Mechanicstown. James Wallace, Cambridge. Districts. I. Charles T. Westcott, Chestertown. James C. Mulliken, Easton. 2. John T. Ensor, Towson. H. M. Clabaugh, Westminster. 3. D. Pinkney West, Baltimore. William Coath, Baltimore. 4. James W. Jordan, Baltimore. Henry W. Rogers, Baltimore. Contestants. Lewis G. Martin, Baltimore. W. C. Clay, Baltimore. 5. James A. Gary, Baltimore. William D. Green, Washington, D. C. 6. J. McPherson Scott, Hagerstown. George L. Wellington, Cumberland. 303 304 I'ERSONELLE OF THE CONVENTION. MASSACHUSETTS. At-Large. George F. Hoar, Worcester. William W. Crapo, New Bedford. John D. Long, Hingham. Henry Cabot Lodge, Nahant. Districts. I. Jonathan Bourne, New Bedford. Frank S. Stevens, Swansea. 2. Frank* M. Ames, Canton. Eben L. Ripley, Hingham. 3. Henry P. Kidder, Boston. Edward L. Pierce, Milton. 4. Jesse M. Gove, Boston. Charles T. Gallagher, Boston. 5. Ephraim Stearnes, Waltham. John T. Andrew, Boston. 6. Amos F. Breed, Lynn. Carroll D. Wright, Reading. 7. Edward H. Haskell, Gloucester. George W. Gate, Amesbury. 8. Frederick T. Greenhalge, Lowell. Andrew C. Stone, Lawrence. 9. Joseph G. Ray, Lawrence. Robert R. Bishop, Newton. 10. William W. Rice, Worcester. Theodore C. Bates, North Brookfield. 11. Chester C. Conant, Greenfield. Rodney Wallace, Fitchburg. 12. Henry S. Hyde, Springfield. Levi L. Brown, Adams. MICHIGAN. At-Large. Roswell G. Horr, Saginaw. William F. Swift, Ishpeming. Samuel C. Watson, Detroit. Julius C. Burrows, Kalamazoo. Districts, i. Russell A. Alger, Detroit. W. S. Morey, Flat Rock. PERSONELLE OF THE CONVENTION. 305 Districts. 2. W. A. Underwood, Adrian. Joseph T. Jacobs, Ann Arbor. 3. Edward C. Nichols, Battle Creek. William H. Powers, Hastings. 4. S. T. Reed, Cassaopolis. Josiah Andrews, Paw Paw. 5. Geo'rge W. Webber, Ionia. H. F. Thomas, Allegan. 6. M. D. Chatterton, Mason. J. E. Sawyer, Pontiac. 7. John B. Sanborn, Port Huron. R. B. Noble, Lexington. 8. W. S. Tuck, St. Louis. W. E. Watson, Bancroft. 9. M. P. Gale, Big Rapids. Abel Anderson, Muskegon. 10. H. H. Alpin, West Bay City. George W. Bell, Cheboygan. 11. S. C. Moffatt, Grand Traverse. S. M. Stevenson, Menominee. MINNESOTA. At-Large. Dwight M. Sabin, Washington. Cushman K. Davis, St. Paul. C. H. Graves, Duluth. O. B. Gould, Winona. Districts, i. Thomas H. Armstrong, Albert Lea. C. H. Conky, Preston. 2. A. M. Crosby, Adrian. L. Z. Rogers, Waterville. 3. E. V. Canfield, Zumbrota. Liberty Hall, Glencoe. 4. Robert B. Langdon, Minneapolis. Stanford Newell, St. Paul. 5. Alphonso Barto, Sauk Centre. Henry G. Page, Fergus Falls. Contestants, }. V. Brower. G. W. Johnson. 306 PERSONELLE OF THE CONVENTION. MISSISSIPPI. At-Large. Blanche K. Bruce, Washington, D. C. James Hill, Jackson. R. F. Beck, Vicksburg. J. M. Bynum, Rienzi. Districts, i. H. C. Powers, Starkville. W. H. Kennon, Columbus. 2. John S. Burton, Holly Springs. D. T. J. Matthews, Sardis. 3. W. H. Allen, Friar's Point. Wesley Creighton, Vicksburg. 4. H. H. Harrington, West Point. J. W. Longstreet, Macon. 5. F. C. Cranberry, Lexington. William W. Hancock, Meridian. 6. John R. Lynch, Natchez. C. A. Simpson, Scranton. 7. Thomas Richardson, Port Gibson. John A. Galbreath, Jackson. MISSOURI. At-Large. Robert T. Van Horn, Kansas City. Harrison E. Havens, Springfield. Benjamin M. Prentiss, Bethany. John B. Henderson, St. Louis. Districts. I. Robert D. Creamer, Memphis. James T. Barber, Hannibal. 2. Joseph H. Turner, Carrollton. Alexander W. Mullens, Linneus. 3. Ira B. Hyde, Princeton. James H. Thomas, Plattsburg. 4. Q. C. Hill, Oregon. A. C. Daws, St. Joseph. 5. William Warner, Kansas City. John B. Jones, Aullville. 6. Odon Guitar, Columbia. William S, Shirk, Sedalia. PERSONELLE OF THE CONVENTION. 307 Districts. 7. M. J. Reynolds, Louisiana. Theodore Brewer, St. Charles. 8. Henry C. Neyer, St. Louis. John C. Bensick, St. Louis. 9. Chauncey I. Filley, St. Louis. James H. McLean, St. Louis. 10. Frederick W. Mott, St. Louis. Kossuth W. Weber, Farmington. n. Eben B. Sankey, Salem. Edward Neuenhahn, Harrman. 12. Charles G. Burton, Nevada. William D. Tyler, Clinton. 13. Joseph B. Upton, Bolivar. Norman Gibbs, Mt. Vernon. 14. Alonzo B. Carroll, Cape Girardeau. Byrd Dunkling, Poplar Bluffs. NEBRASKA. At-Large. John M. Thurston, Omaha. Nathan S. Harwood, Lincoln. John Jenson, Geneva. George A. Brooks, Bazile Mills. Districts, i . Eugene L. Reed, Weeping Water. Church Howe, Auburn. 2. William T. Scott, York. George W. Burton, Orleans. 3. Charles P. Mathewson, Norfolk. John H. McCall, Plum Creek. NEVADA. At-Large. C. C. Stevenson, Gold Hill. M. D. Foley, Eureka. J. H. Rand, Elko. John E. Dixon, Tuscarora. S. L. Lee, Carson City. C. J, Blair, Pioche. 308 PEKSn.NKLLE OF THE CONVENTION. NEW HAMPSHIRE. At-Large. Charles H. Sawyer, Dover. George H. Stowell, Claremont. Edward H. Rollins, Concord. Joseph B. Clark, Manchester. Districts, i. Charles D. McDuffie, Manchester. Warren Brown, Hampton Falls. 2. Frank D. Currier, Canaan. Henry B. Atherton, Nashua. NEW JERSEY. At-Large. William Walter Phelps, Teaneck. William J. Sewell, Camden. John J. Gardiner, Atlantic City. J. Frank Fort, Newark. Districts. I Isaac T. Nichols, Bridgeton. Thomas B. Harned, Camden. 2. William H. Skein, Trenton. Maylon Hutchinson, Bordentown. 3. John W. Herbert, Wickatunk. James R. English, Elizabeth. 4. John I. Blair, Blairstown. William H. Long, Somerville. 5. William H. Howell, Morristown. Watts Cook, Paterson. 6. Herman Lehback, Newark. William Riker, Newark. 7. James Gopsill, Jersey City. John Ramsey, Jersey City. NEW YORK. At-Large. Theodore Roosevelt, New York. Andrew D. White, Ithaca. John I. Gilbert, Malone. Edwin Packard, Brooklyn. PERSONELLE OF THE CONVENTION. 309 Districts, i. George William Curtis, West New Brighton. John M. Crane, Jamaica. 2. E. H. Hobbs, 1 10 Kingston avenue, Brooklyn. S. B. Butcher, Brooklyn. 3. A. D. Baird, cor. Myrtle ave and Keap st., Brooklyn G. L. Pease, 325 Clinton avenue, Brooklyn. 4. W. H. Beard, 287 President street, Brooklyn. M. N. Day, 62 Hanson place, Brooklyn. 5. C. D. Rhinehart, 179 Meserole avenue, Brooklyn. G. C. Rennett, 16 Magnolia street, Brooklyn. 6. John J. O'Brien, 120 Forsyth street, New York. John H. Brady, 39 King street, New York. Contestants. George B. Deane, Sr., New York. Frederick S. Gibbs, New York. 7. J. D. Lawson, Brevoort House, New York. Charles N. Taintor, 135 E. i8th street, New York. 8. Robert G. McCord, 45 W. 22d street, New York. John Collins, 135 Henry street, New York. 9. J. M. Patterson, 152 Stanton street, New York. George Hilliard, 741 Fifth street, New York. 10. B. Biglin, 341 Lexington avenue, New York. Michael Cregan, Ashland House, New York. n. Anson G. McCook, Washington, D. C. J. R. Lydecker, 309 W. 33d street, New York. 12. E. Stevenson, 215 E. 62d street, New York. William Dowd, 30 W. 52d street, New York. 13. F. Raymond, 338 E. I2oth street, New York. J. A. Eagleson, 221 E. n8th street, New York. 14. William H. Robertson, Katonah. James W. Husted, Peekskill. 15. Benjamin B. Odell, Newburg. David J. Blauvelt, Nyack. 16. B. Platt Carpenter, Poughkeepsie. Hamilton Fish, Jr., Garrisons. 17. Thomas Cornell, Rondout. Duncan Ballantine, Andes. 18. Martin I. Townsend, Troy. H. G. Burleigh, Whitehall. 19. George Campbell, Cohoes. Hiram Griggs, Knowersville. 19 3IO PERSONELLE OK Till-: CONVENTION. ( 'untcstants. James Lamb, Cohoes. James A. Houck, Albany. 20. George West, Ballston Spa. John Kellogg, Amsterdam. 2r John Hammond, Crown Point. George Chahoon, Ausable Forks. 22. Leslie W. Russell, Canton. George A. Bagley, Watertown. 23. W. E. Scripture, Rome. A. M. Lanpher, Lowville. 24. Hobart Krum, Schoharie. Titus Sheard, Little Falls. 25. Carrol E. Smith, Syracuse. Henry L. Duguid, Syracuse. 26. Thomas C. Platt, Owego. Milton Delano, Canastota. 27. D. M. Osborne, Auburn. T. A. Youmans, Walworth. 28. Jeremiah W. Dwight, Dryden. W. L. Smith, Elmira. 29. George R. Cornwell, Penn Yan. Stephen T. Hoyt, Corning. 30. Leonard Barrett, Spencerport. H. H. Warner, Rochester. 31. James W. Wadsworth, Geneseo. Edmund L. Pitts, Medina. 32. James D. Warren, Buffalo. Josiah Jewett, Buffalo. 33. George Urban, Jr., Buffalo. Lee R. Sanborn, Sanborn. 34. Norman M. Allen, Dayton. Frank S. Smith, Angelica. NORTH CAROLINA. At-Large. J. J. Mott, Statesville. W. S. Dockery, Mangum. J. H. Harris, Raleigh. J. E. O'Hara, Washington, D. C. PERSONELLE OF THE CONVENTION. Districts, i. J. B. Hill, Raleigh. E. A. White, Belvidere. 2. J. C. Dancey, Raleigh. I. J. Young, Raleigh. 3. L. \V. Humphrey, Goldsboro. John S. Leary, Fayetteville. 4. Charles D. Upchurch. Raleigh. John Williamson, Louisburg. 5. Thomas B. Keogh, Greensboro. P. H. Winslow, Jr., Winston. 6. W. H. Bynum. E. J. Pennybacher. Contestants. William S. Dockery. George L. Mabson. 7. J. J. Mott. A. S. Richardson. Contestants. H. C. Crowles. James Henderson. 8. W. L. Pearson, Morgantown. L. L. Green, Boone. 9. John B. Eaves, Rutherfordtown. T. J. Candler, Asheville. OHIO. At-Large. J. B. Foraker, Cincinnati. William McKinley, Jr., Canton. Mark A. Hanna, Cleveland. William H. West, Bellefontaine. Districts, i. Benjamin Eggleston, Cincinnati. William B. Smith, Cincinnati. 2. Amor Smith, Jr:, Cincinnati. Charles Fleishman, Cincinnati. 3. Henry L. Morey, Hamilton. M. J. W. Holter, Batavia. 4. S. Craighead, Dayton. A. R. Burkett, Troy. 312 PERSONELLE OF THE CONVENTION. Districts. 5. James S. Robinson, Kenton. Joseph Morris, Lima. 6. Albert M. Pratt, Bryan. J. N. High, Napoleon. 7. R.' W. McMahon, Bowling Green. W. C. Lemert, Bucyrus. 8. Oscar T. Martin, Springfield. G. M. Eichelberger, Urbana. 9. Thomas E. Duncan, Mt. Gilead. John F. Locke, London. 10. C. L. Luce, Toledo. John B. Rice, Fremont. 11. Alphonso Hart, Hillsborough. Charles W. Boyd, Levanna. 12. O. B. Gould, Portsmouth. A. S. Bundy, Wellston. 13. C. D. Firestone, Columbus. C. E. Groce, Circleville. 14. William J. Shriver, New Lexington. Austin W. Vorhes, Pomeroy. 15. H. C. Van Vorhes, Pomeroy. E. L. Lybarger, Coshocton. 16. E. G. Johnson, Elmyra. W. L. Sewell, Mansfield. 17. Charles H. Baltzell, Bellaire. M. R. Patterson, Cambridge. 1 8. C. H. Andrews, Youngstown. William Monaghan, New Lisbon. 19. E. L. Lampson, Jefferson. J. O. Converse, Chardon. 20. A. L. Conger, Akron. T. D. Loomis, Lodi. 21. Edwin Cowles, Cleveland. A. C. Hord, Cleveland. OREGON. At-Large. Joseph N. Dolph, Washington, D. C. John T. Apperson, Oregon City. PERSONELLE OF THE CONVENTION. 3IJ At-Large. W. J. McConnell, North Yam Hill. John W. Swift, Baker City. A. G. Hovey, Eugene City. O. M. Denny, Portland. PENNSYLVANIA. At-Large. James McManes, Philadelphia. Hamilton Disston, Philadelphia. P. L. Kimberly, Sharon. J. W. Lee, Franklin. Lewis Emery, Jr. Bradford. W. H. Jessup, Montrose. Districts, i. General H. H. Bingham, Philadelphia. William J. Pollock, Philadelphia. 2. W. R. Leeds, 246 N. roth street, Philadelphia. D. H. Lane, 1400 N. I3th street, Philadelphia. 3. Samuel B. Gilpin, Philadelphia. Harry Hunter, 723 S. I2th street, Philadelphia. 4. Alex. Crowe, Jr., 2112 Spring Garden St., Phila. W. E. Rowan, 3632 Market street, Philadelphia. 5. John T. Thompson, 2800 Frankford ave. Phila. John Ruhl, 2242 Frankford Road, Philadelphia. 6. B. Fisher, Schuylkill. Richard Young, Morton. 7. Robert M. Yardley, Doylestown. J. P. Hale Jenkins, Norristown. 8. Samuel R. Deppen, Robesonia Furnaces. F. S. Livengood, Reading. 9. Edwin Reimhold, Marietta. Lewis S. Hartman, Lancaster. 10. Samuel Thomas, Catasauqua. William S. Kirkpatrick, Easton. 11. James Cruikshank, Danville. James C. Brown, Bloomsburg. 12. Hubbard B. Payne, Wilkesbarre. Henry M. Boies, Scranton. 314 PERSONELLE OF THE CONVENTION. Disfs. 13. J. A. M. Passmore, Pottsville. J. Y. Sollenberger, Mahanoy City 14. Horace Brock, Lebanon. Jacob H. Wagner, Watsontown. 15. F. F. Lyon, Barclay. G. A. Grow, Glenwood. 16. E. G. Schieffelin, Stokesdale. C. W. Hill, Williamsport. 17. Daniel J. Morrell, Johnstown. Edward Scull, Somerset. 1 8. John Stewart, Chambersburg. S. E. Duffield, McConnellsburg. 19. William H. Lanius, York. Jacob A. Kintzmiller, Gettysburg. 20. E. A. Ervin, Curwensville. Thomas C. Thornton, Lewisburg. 21. J. K. Ewing, Uniontown. John F. Wentling, Greensburg. 22. C. L. Magee, Pittsburg. William Flynn, Pittsburg. 23. Thomas M. Bayne, Allegheny City. E. M. Byers, Allegheny City. 24. E. F.. Acheson, Washington. John W. Wallace, New Castle. 25. J. B. Henderson, Brookville. H. C. Howard, Indiana. 26. T. C. Cochran, Sheakleyville. W. H. H. Riddle, Butler. 27. E. W. Echols, Franklin. Joseph Johnson, Erie. RHODE ISLAND. At-Large. Gorham P. Pomeroy, Providence. Frank M. Bates, Pawtucket. Ellery H. Wilson, Rumford. Daniel G. Littlefield, Central Falls. PERSONELLE OF THE CONVENTION. Districts, i. William A. Steadman, Newport. John C. Barrington, Barrington. 2. Thomas C. Peckham, Coventry. Albert L. Chester, Westerly. SOUTH CAROLINA. At-Large. Robert Smalls, Beaufort. W. N. Taft, Charleston. E. M. Bray ton, Columbia. Samuel Lee, Sumter. Districts, i. J. M. Freeman, Charleston. E. H. Webster, Orangeburg. 2. Paris Simpkins, Edgefield. S. E. Smith, Aiken. 3. E. F. Blodgett, Oconee. R. W. Boone, Newberry. 4. C. M. Wilder, Columbia. Wilson Cook, Greenville. 5. C. C. McCoy, Chester. E. H. Dibble, Kershaw. 6. E. H. Deas, Darlington. T. D. Corbin, Charleston. - 7. T. B. Johnston, Sumter. W. H. Thompson, Berkeley. TENNESSEE. At-Large. W. P. Brownlow, Jonesborough. L. C. Houk, Knoxville. J. C. Napier, Nashville. T. F. Cassells, Memphis. Districts, i. A. H. Pettibone, Greenville. John W. Brown, Rogersville. 2. W. C. Chandler, Sevierville. W. C. Chumlea, Marysville. 316 PERSON ELLE OF THE CONVENTION. Districts. 3. H. F. Griscom, Chattanooga. F. V. Brown, Jasper. 4. B. W. Burford, Carthage. John Pruitt, Gallatin. 5. W. Y. Elliott, Murfreesboro. W. M. Ekin, Lewisburg. 6. H. L. W. Cheatham, Nashville. B. J. Hadley, Nashville. 7. A. M. Hughes, Jr., Columbia. Richard Harris, Pulaski. 8. S. W. Hawkins, Huntington. J. C. Watson, Jackson. 9. M. E. Bell, Dresden. S. A. McElwee, Brownsville. 10. Carter Harris, Memphis. James H. Smith, Memphis. TEXAS. At-Large. C. C. Brinkley, Sherman. Robert Seapp, Lagrange. M. W. Cuney, Galveston. Richard Allen, Houston. Districts. I. R. J. Evans, Navasota. J. Greene. 2. A. Burkhardt, Anderson County. H. L. Davis, Freestone County. 3. Webster Flanigan, Henderson. Simon Bergt, Canton. 4. A. G. Mallory, Galveston. Contestant. Henry Carter, Jefferson. R. Taylor. 5. Q. T. Lyons, Sherman. R. S. Cleaves, Gainesville. 6. John S. Witmer, Dallas. J. C. Ackers, Hillsboro. 7. L. W. Renfrew, Brownsville. M. R. Ferguson, Richmond. PERSONELLE OF THE CONVENTION. 317 Districts. 8. Henry Green. A. J. Rosenthal, Lagrange. 9. Nathan Patton, Palestine. Henry Blount, Brenham. 10. J. C. Degress, Austin. L. Hanschke, San Antonio. n. P. Campbell, El Paso. J. McConnell, Jacksboro. VERMONT. At-Large. Gregory Smith, St. Albans. Redfield Proctor, Rutland. Frederick Billings, Woodstock. Broughton D. Harris, Brattleborough. Districts, i. Alonzo B. Valentine, Bennington. Henry Ballard, Burlington. 2. B. Frank Fifield, Montpelier. Truman C. Fletcher, St. Johnsbury. VIRGINIA. At-Large. William Mahone, Petersburg, Washington, D. C. James D. Brady, Petersburg. S. F. Blair, Richmond. L. M. Yost, Staunton. W. H. Pleasants, Danville. A. A. Dodson, Clarksville. Districts, i. Duff Green, Falmouth. L. R. Steward, Warsaw. 2. Harry Libbey, Washington, D. C. Jordan Thompson, Suffolk. 3. N. C. Elam, Richmond. J. Anderson Taylor, Richmond. 4. W. E. Gaiaes, Burkeville. A, W, Harris, Petersburg. 3l8 PERSONELLE OF THE CONVENTION. Districts. 5. William E. Sims, Chatham. Winfield Scott, Floyd C. H. 6. James A. Frazier, Lexington. J. M. McLaughlin, Lynchburg. 7. L. S. Walker, Woodstock. J. L. Dunn, Nortonsville. 8. R. L. Mitchell, Alexandria. 4 Thomas G. Popham, Slate Mills. 9. H. C. Wood, Estillville. D. F. Houston, Roanoke. STRAIGHTOUTS. At-Large. John F. Dezendorf. B. B. Botts. William C. Wickham. H. C. Parsons. J. M. Dawson. William H. Lester. Districts, i. S. P. Gresham. Nathaniel Schroeder. 2. J. Callahari. John Carey. 3. Otis H. Russell. Lazarus Bibb. 4. B. F. Williams. E. D. Scott. 5. Not named. 6. J. B. Work. Henry Clay. 7. A. M. Lawson. S. W. Cochran. 8. E. O. Hines. W. W. Willoughoy. 9. C. C. Tompkins. E. M. Rucker. PERSONELLE OF THE CONVENTION. 319 WEST VIRGINIA. At-Large. B. B. Dorener, Wheeling. William M. O. Dawson, Kingwood. E. L. Buttrick, Charleston. Warren Miller, Ravenswood. Districts. I. C. D. Thompson, Wheeling. T. B. Jacobs, New Martinsville. 2. Lamar C. Powell, Fairmont. Arnold C. Sherr, Maysville. 3. Neil Robinson, Coalburg. J. W. Heavener, Buckhannon. 4. B. J. Redmond, West Columbia. M. C. C. Church, Parkersburg. WISCONSIN. At-Large. E. B. Brodhead, Milwaukee. E. W. Keyes, Madison. Jonathan Bowman, Kilbourn City. Thomas B. Scott, Grand Rapids. Districts, i. H. A. Cooper, Racine. J. W. Sayles, Janesville. 2. W. T. Rambush, Juneau. S. S. Barney, West Bend. 3. Calvin Spenseley, Mineral Point. A. C. Dodge, Monroe. 4. F. C. Winker, Milwaukee. Edward Sanderson, Milwaukee. 5. J. H. Mead, Sheboygan. C. E. Estabrook, Manitowoc. 6. C. B. Clark, Nenah. A. M. Kimball, Pine River. 7. C. M. Butt, Viroqua. O. F. Temple, Masston. 8. Horace A. Taylor, Hudson. George B. Shaw, Eau Claire. 9. Alexander Stewart, Wausau. O. A. Ellis, Oconto. -32O PERSONELLE OF THE CONVENTION. ARIZONA. Clark Churchill, A. H. Stebbins, Preston Tombstone W. E. Nelson, J. L. Jolly, DAKOTA. Yankton Yankton DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. Frank B. Conger Perry H. Carson Washington Washington D. P. B. Pride W. N. Shilling IDAHO. Boise City Blackfoot. Wilbur F. Saunders Lee Mantle - MONTANA. Helene Butte Eugenie Romere W. H. H. Llewellyn NEW MEXICO. Las Vegas Lincoln Eli H. Murray Nathan Kimball UTAH. Salt Lake City Ogden PERSON ELLE OF THE CONVENTION. WASHINGTON. John L. Wilson George D. Hill James France John W. Meldrum WYOMING. 321 Spokane Seattle Rawlins Laramie City CHAPTER III. THE PLATFORM. "Do not stand on the platform when the train is in motion," is a legend seriously employed in railroad travel and ironically employed among the political parties. Every party is supposed to have certain principles which constitute its dis- tinctive features and form a basis on which to rest its demand for votes. These features are technically "the planks," of which " the party platform " is constructed, and on which it pre- sents itself to the world and does its work. It is a natural impulse to make unsightly and un- sound platforms look the best possible. The rough planks of the platform at the country picnic are decorated with evergreens ; the extem- porized platform of the Fourth of July rally is covered with flags, and so the unsightliness and unsoundness of many a party platform has been concealed with redundant verbiage and vague phrases. Indeed, so much does the average " platform " deal in meaningless, or double-mean- ing phrases, that no man can be fairly credited with standing on it. And yet the party platform is an institution. The stump speakers of the cam- 322 THE PLATFORM. 323 paign quote it, and the excited disputants appeal to it. To many it has the authority of both law and gospel. The platform for the campaign of 1884 was adopted at Chicago, Thursday, June 5th. As the platform was being read there were in- terruptions of applause at the points approving the President's administration ; declaring that duties shall be made not for revenue only ; claiming full and adequate protection for sheep husbandry ; recommending legislation to regulate the rail- roads ; disapproving the importation of contract labor, whether from Europe or Asia ; favoring the civil service law ; condemning the acquisition of large tracts of lands, especially by non-resident aliens ; declaring the policy of non-interference with foreign nations, and that foreign nations shall refrain from intermeddling in American affairs ; for the enforcement of the laws against polygamy and condemning the fraud and violence of the Democracy in the Southern States. The resolu- tions were adopted without discussion and amid much applause. The full text of the platform is given below: THE REPUBLICAN PLATFORM. The Republicans of the United States, in Convention assembled, renew their allegiance to the principles upon which they have triumphed in six successive Presidential elections, and congratulate the American people on the 324 THE PLATFORM. attainment of so many results in legislation and admin- istration by which the Republican party has, after saving the Union, done so much to render its institutions just, equal and beneficent the safeguard of liberty, and the embodiment of the best thought and highest purposes of our citizens. The Republican party has gained its strength by quick and faithful response to the demands of the people for the freedom and the equality of all men ; for a united nation, assuring the rights of all citizens ; for the elevation of labor ; for an honest currency ; for purity in legislation, and for integrity and accountability in all departments of the Government, and it accepts anew the duty of leading in the work of progress and reform. We lament the death of President Garfield, whose sound statesmanship, long conspicuous in Congress, gave promise of a strong and successful administration, a promise fully realized during the short period of his office as President of the United States. His distinguished success in war and in peace have endeared him to the hearts of the American people. In the administration of President Arthur we recognize a wise, conservative and patriotic policy, under which the country has been blessed with remarkable prosperity, and we believe his eminent services are entitled to, and will receive, the hearty approval of every citizen. It is the first duty of a good government to protect the rights and promote the interests of its own people ; the largest diversity of industry is most productive of general prosperity, and of the comfort and independence of the people. THE TARIFF. We therefore demand that the imposition of duties on foreign imports shall be made not for " revenue only," THE PLATFORM 325 but that in raising the requisite revenues for the Govern- ment, such duties shall be so levied as to afford security to our diversified industries, and protection to the rights and wages of the laborer, to the end that active and intel- ligent labor, as well as capital, may have its just award, and the laboring man his full share in the national prosperity. Against the so-called economical system of the Democratic party, which would degrade our labor to the foreign standard, we enter our earnest protest. The Democratic party has failed completely to relieve the people of the burden of unnecessary taxation by a wise reduction of the surplus. The Republican party pledges itself to correct the inequalities of the tariff, and to reduce the surplus, not by the vicious and indiscriminate process of horizontal reduc- tion, but by such methods as will relieve the tax -payer without injuring the laborer or the great productive inter- ests of the country. We recognize the importance of sheep husbandry in the United States, the serious depression which it is now experiencing, and the danger threatening its future prosperity, and we therefore respect the demands of the representatives of this important agricultural interest for a readjustment of duty upon foreign wool, in order that such industry shall have full and adequate protection. We have always recommended the best money known to the civilized world, and we urge that an effort be made to unite all commercial nations in the establishment of the international standard which shall fix for all the rela- tive value of gold and silver coinage. POWERS OF CONGRESS. The regulation of commerce with foreign nations, and between the States, is one of the most important preroga- 326 THE I'l.ATl-nkM. tives of the General Government, and the Republican party distinctly announces its purpose to support such legislation as will fully and efficiently carry out the con- stitutional power of Congress over inter-State commerce. The principle of the public regulation of railway corpo- rations is a wise and salutary one for the protection of all classes of the people, and we favor legislation that shall prevent unjust discrimination and excessive charges for transportation, and that shall secure to the people and to the railways alike the fair and equal protection of the laws. We favor the establishment of a national bureau of labor, the enforcement of the eight-hour law, a wise and judicious system of general education by adequate appropriation from the national revenues wherever the same is needed. We believe that everywhere the pro- tection to a citizen of American birth must be secured to the citizens by American adoption, and we favor the settlement of national differences by international arbi- tration. The Republican party, having its birth in a hatred of slave labor, and in a desire that all men may be free and equal, is unalterably opposed to placing our workingmen in competition with any form of servile labor, whether at home or abroad. In this spirit we denounce the import- ation of contract labor, whether from Europe or Asia, as an offense against the spirit of American institutions, and we pledge ourselves to sustain the present law restricting Chinese immigration, and to provide such further legisla- tion as is necessary to carry out its purposes. CIVIL SERVICE REFORM. The reform of the civil service, auspiciously begun under Republican administration, should be completed THE PLATFORM. 327 by the further extension of the reform system, already established by law, to all the grades of the service to which it is applicable. The spirit and purpose of the reform should be observed in all executive appointments, and all laws at variance with the objects of existing reform legislation should be repealed to the end, that the dangers to free institutions which lurk in the power of official patronage may be wisely and effectively avoided. PUBLIC LANDS. The public lands are a heritage of the people of the United States, and should be reserved, as far as possible, for small holdings by actual settlers. We are opposed to the acquisition of large tracts of these lands by corpora- tions or individuals, especially where such holdings are in the hands of non-resident aliens, and we will endeavor to obtain such legislation as will tend to correct this evil. We demand of Congress the speedy forfeiture of all land grants which have lapsed by reason of non-compli- ance with acts of incorporation, in all cases, where there has been no attempt, in good faith, to perform the con- ditions of such grants. The grateful thanks of the American people are due to the Union soldiers and sailors of the late war, and the Republican party stands pledged to suitable pensions to all who were disabled and for the widows and orphans of those who died in the war. The Republican party pledges itself to the repeal of the limitation contained in the arrears act of 1879, so tnat a ^ invalid soldiers shall share alike and their pensions shall begin with the date of disability or discharge and not with the date of the application. The Republican party favors a policy which shall keep us from entangling alliances with foreign nations, and 328 THE PLATFORM. which shall give the right to expect that foreign nations shall refrain from meddling in America the policy which seeks peace and can trade with all powers, but especially with those of the Western Hemisphere. We demand the restoration of our navy to its old-time strength and efficiency, that it may in any sea protect the rights of American citizens and the interests of American com- merce, and we call upon Congress to remove the burdens under which American shipping has been depressed so that it may again be true that we have a commerce which leaves no sea unexplored and a navy which takes no law for superior force. RESOLVED, That appointments by the President to offices in the Territories should be made from the bona fide citizens and residents of the Territories wherein they are to serve. RESOLVED, That it is the duty of Congress to enact such laws as shall promptly and effectually suppress the system of polygamy within our territory, and divor e the political from the ecclesiastical power of the so-called Mormon Church, and that the law so enacted should be rigidly enforced by the civil authorities if possible, and by the military if need be. THE NATION. The people of the United States, in their organized capacity, constitute a nation and not a mere confederacy of States. The National Government is supreme within the sphere of its national duty, but the States have reserved rights which should be faithfully maintained ; each should be guarded with jealous care, so that the harmony of our system of government may be preserved and the Union kept inviolate. The perpetuity of our institutions rests upon the maintenance of a free ballot, Ei, S. 5 i r THE PLATFORM. 33! an honest count and a correct return. We denounce the fraud and violence practiced by the Democratic party in Southern States, by which the will of the voter is defeated, as dangerous to the preservation of free institutions, and we solemnly arraign the Democratic party as being the guilty recipient of the fruit of such fraud and violence. We extend to the Republicans of the South, regardless of their former party affiliations, our cordial sympathy, and pledge to them our most earnest efforts to promote the passage of such legislation as will secure to every citizen, of whatever race and color, the full and complete recognition, possession and exercise of all civil and political rights. Such is the declaration of principles on which the Convention placed itself before proceeding to the selection of its candidates. CHAPTER IV. NAMING THE CANDIDATES. No session of the Convention had awakened so general interest and enthusiasm as that held on Thursday night, when naming the candidates was the order of business. The Convention presented a most brilliant and imposing spectacle. More than a thousand gaslights illuminated the hall, and fully one-third of the galleries and half the stage platform were filled with ladies. The night was clear and cool, 'the occasion one of uncommon inspiration, and everything befitted the greatest work of the greatest people of the earth. The States were called in order, and such as had a favorite son to name presented him in a suitable speech from a chosen representative. Connecticut was the first to respond, which she did in the person of Augustus Brandagee, of New London, who presented the name of General Joseph R. Hawley. He spoke at length of Gen- eral Hawley's services to the party and his war record. " He fought," said Mr. Brandagee, " the war through, from a private at Bull Run until that day when the Democratic party laid down its arms under the apple tree of Appomattox. [Applause.] GENERAL JOSEPH R. HAWLEY, U. S. Senator for Connecticut. NAMING THE CANDIDATES. 335 He went in with a musket. He came out as a major-general. But, sir, it is not in the purple testament of bleeding war that his name is written ; among the foremost alone he stands, as well in the front rank of debaters, orators and Senators. There is no State where his voice has not been heard, preaching the gospel of Republicanism. He was a Republican before the Republican party was born. [Applause and cheers.] He believed in its creed before it was formulated. [Applause and cheers.] There is no question in the Senate of the United States which has not received his intelligence." Mr. Brandagee said his character was without stain, and there was nothing to apolo- gize for, but if the Convention concluded it had a better candidate than Hawley, Connecticut would cheerfully support him. Illinois responded to the call through Senator Callow, who presented the name of General John A. Logan. He dwelt on Logan's war record, and said he had never lost a battle, nor disobeyed an order. His remarks were frequently cheered, but he and his second exhausted the enthusiasm of the house by the inordinate length of their remarks. The call of Maine produced a storm of applause, shaking the building from the floor to the dome. Hats, canes, umbrellas, handkerchiefs, even bon- nets, were wildly waved. The applause was incessant. The audience got upon chairs, the 336 NAMING THE CANDIDATES. ladies waving their handkerchiefs. The band finally tried to drown the enthusiasm of the multi- tude, but only an occasional strain could be heard. The chairman vainly tried to secure order. Judge West, of Ohio, finally took the floor to present the name of James G. Elaine. He paid an eloquent tribute to Blaine. There was intense applause upon reference to Abraham Lincoln, the immortal emancipator. The Judge asked, "Who shall be our candidate ? " which evoked loud replies from the audience of " Blaine ! " " Blaine ! " and pro- duced a shouting combat of voices, the supporters of each loudly shouting their favorite name. When West mentioned Elaine's name, the audience arose to its feet, and tremendous cheering was long continued. The audience took the flags fastened around the gallery and waved them. Then they pulled the banners down from the walls of the hall, waving them amid deafening cheering. When West had finished there was renewed cheering, which continued for some time afterward. Ex-Governor, Cushman K. Davis, of Minnesota, took the floor to second the nomination. He said the people of the country asked this Convention to grant their twice-deferred desire ; that Blaine was not of one State, but of all, from Maine to California. He concluded his speech amid another outburst of applause. General William Cassius Goodloe, of Kentucky, from the home of Henry Clay, followed in a speech S? H i 2 3 1 ;__llj__ ll._ :i_:A_-!- cc S NAMING THE CANDIDATES. 339 seconding Elaine's nomination. By this time the crowd outside of the Convention had taken up the enthusiasm, their cheers preventing much of the speech being heard at remote points in the hall. Ex-Senator Thomas C. Platt, of New York, also seconded the nomination. He asked the Blaine delegates to stand firm, and victory now and in November was theirs. He was followed by Hon. Galusha A. Grow, of Pennsylvania, who also spoke for Blaine. When New York was called the house burst into cheers, which were generally participated in. The cheering continued and flags and handker- chiefs were waved and many delegates threw their hats in the air. Finally the galleries struck up the old refrain, "John Brown's Body." Martin I. Townsend took the floor to present Arthur. His speech was freqently interrupted by cheers. He said Arthur's nomination would give satisfaction to all classes of citizens. Townsend's reference to Conkling and Platt resigning on account of Elaine's wickedness was received with a storm of hisses. The latter part of Townsend's speech was delivered amid a good deal of con- fusion and interruption. General Harry Bingham, of Pennsylvania, secor I the nomination of Arthur, in an enthu- siastic speech, which was well received. When he spoke for Pennsylvania, and pledged the electoral vote for Arthur by 30,000, he revived the Arthur 34O NAMING THE CANDIDATES. enthusiasm and warmed up the chilly atmosphere that surrounded them at the close of the preced- ing day. It was a most successful speech, and if any really impressed the Convention his was the most impressive. Lynch, of Mississippi, then took the stand to second the nomination of Arthur, and he was received with cheers. Winston, of North Carolina, also seconded the nomination, and Pinchback, of Louisiana, followed. When Ohio was called Judge Foracker took the platform amid hearty greetings. His opening compliment to Blaine started so wild a storm of applause that his main object, the nomination of John Sherman, of Ohio, was temporarily lost to view. But the Judge managed the affair grace- fully, and made a splendid speech, though he did not kindle the audience beyond a moderate glow of enthusiasm. Holt, of Kentucky, followed, but the fervor did not rise. When Vermont, was called Governor Long, of Massachusetts, took the floor for Senator George F. Edmunds. His speech was entirely outside of the regulation oratorical eulogies. He spoke like a bold, brave man for an able and blameless can- didate, and he waked the Convention out of its weariness by his sensible and incisive admonitions to the delegates and the party. When he closed there were hearty rounds of applause, in which the Arthur delegates cordially participated. Next came George William Curtis to second the Ed- NAMING THE CANDIDATES. 343 munds' nomination, which he did with his accus- tomed grace and elegance, but the appeal fell lifeless as the man of the hour had evidently been named. When the question came, at a later stage, upon the candidates for the Vice Presidency, a strong effort was anticipated for Secretary of. War Lin- coln and also for Postmaster-General Gresham, but it was understood that these gentlemen pre- ferred that their names be not used, and so the whole Convention swung bodily to General Logan, who, though he had been nominated for the first place on the ticket was, nevertheless, understood to be "in the hands of his friends." His friends used him well, and rallied about him with unbounded enthusiasm and great good sense, making him, in fact, the one man presented for the second place. CHAPTER V. THE CHOICE. FRIDAY, June 6th, was the eventful day of the Convention. It was called to order by Chairman Henderson at 11.19 A. M., and the Rev. Dr. Henry Martyn Scudder led in prayer, after which the body quickly addressed itself to the work of nominating the candidate for the presidency. By vote of the National Committee and of the convention itself, the rules of the convention of 1880 were adopted for the government of that of 1884. These rules provided, First That each State must respond when called, or lose its right to be counted on that ballot. Second That an absent delegate has no right to authorize any one to vote for him, and that each delegate or each alternate must cast his own vote. Third That when a delegate fails to respond, the name of the alternate borne upon the roll opposite that delegate shall then be called. If that alternate does not respond, the names of the other alternates selected for the same representa- tion by the same authority will be called in their order ; as, for instance, if a delegate-at-large fails 344 THE CHOICE. 345 to respond, and the alternate whose name is on the roll opposite that delegate-at-large also fails to respond, the chair will direct the other three alternates-at-large to be called in their order, and there stop. If, on the other hand, the failure to respond be that of a district delegate, the. chair will direct the name of the other alternate from that district (the first one failing to respond) to be called, and there stop, fourth A delegate absent when the vote of his State is announced and recorded cannot, on that vote, be counted. All these rulings, which were carefully and dis- tinctly stated by the president, Senator Hoar, were acquiesced in without dissent, and were accepted as the law governing the proceedings of the Convention of 1880, and were rigidly and impartially applied. During the roll-call there were numerous calls for a poll of the delegates, which necessitated the calling by the Secretary of the names of the indi- vidual' delegates in the states from which these calls proceeded. This caused great delay in bal- loting. After the announcement of the vote by the Secretary, the Chair said : "A ballot for a candidate for the presidency having been had without securing a nomination, according to the rules, the Convention will now proceed to another vote. The Secretary will call the roll." The first ballot stood as follows : LIFE OF JAMES C. I: I. A INK. TIIK FIRST BALLOT. States and Territories. Total vote. Blaine. Arthur. Edmunds. d a S Sherman. Hawley. Lincoln. W. T. Shorn iau. Alaliama 20 1 17 i Arkansas It 8 4 2 California. Hi 16 ( 'olorado 6 6 < 'i HI iieetirnt 12 12 1 (ela wari'. (I 5 1 J- 'lurida 8 1 7 < ieor^ia 24 24 Illinois. 44 3 1 40 Indiana 30 18 9 1 2 lows 26 26 Kansas 18 12 4 1 1 Kentucky 26 5K 16 2 1 A 1 1 Louisiana 16 ?; 10 p Maine 12 12 Marvland 16 10 6 Massachusetts 28 1 2 25 "C, 15 2 7 Minnesota 14 7 1 6 M ississippi 18 1 17 M issoiirl 32 5 10 6 ib 1 Nebraska 10 8 2 Nevada 6 New Hampshire 8 4 4 New Jersey 18 9 6 1 2 2 New York 7J 28 31 12 1 North Carolina 22 2 19 i Ohio 46 2 2.-. 6 6 60 47 11 1 i Rhode Island 8 8 South * 'arolina 18 1 17 Tennessee 24 7 16 i Texas 20 II 11 2 Vermont .. 8 8 \'ir ir i nia 24 2 21 1 \\'est Vir-'inia 12 12 f \V isconsin 22 10 6 6 Arizona 2 2 1 lakota 2 2 Idaho 2 2 Montana, 2 1 1 New Mexico 2 2 Utah 2 2 Washington 2 2 \V\ oinin" 2 2 l)ist of Columbia 2 1 1 Totals S3) 3*4^ 278 !i:; ngf 80 13 4 2 The half votes shown in this table came from contested delegations, each being admitted with but half a vote. THE CHOICE. 347 THE SECOND BALLOT. The Secretary called the roll of states for the second ballot, which resulted as follows : States and Territories. Total vote. Arthur. Blaine. Edmunds. a s ! Sherman. Hawley. Lincoln. W. T. Sherman. Alabama 20 17 2 1 Arkansas 14 3 11 California 16 16 Colorado 6 6 Connecticut 12 12 Delaware 6 1 5 Florida 8 7 1 Georgia 24 24 Illinois 44 1 3 40 Indiana 30 9 18 1 2 Iowa 26 26 Kansas 18 2 13 2 i Kentucky 26 17 5 2 I 1 Louisiana 16 9 4 2 Maine 12 12 Maryland 16 4 12 Massachusetts 28 3 1 24 26 4 15 5 2 Minnesota 14 1 7 s Mississippi 18 17 1 Missouri 32 10 7 5 8 1 Nebraska 10 2 8 6 6 New Hampshire .. .. 8 5 3 New Jersey 18 9 6 1 2 New York 72 81 28 12 1 North Carolina 22 18 3 1 Ohio 46 23 23 6 o 60 11 47 1 1 g 18 17 1 24 16 7 1 26 11 13 2 8 8 24 21 2 1 12 12 22 6 11 5 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 2 2 Utah 2 2 2 2 2 2 District of Columbia 2 1 1 Totals Sl>l) 276 349 85 61 28 13 4 2 This announcement was received with cheers. 348 i. in-: OF JAMKS f;. I-.I.AINK. THE THIRD BALLOT. No nomination having been made, the Secre- tary called the roll for the third ballot, which resulted as follows : states and Territories Total vote. Hlaine. Arthur. ! Edmunds. Sherman. H:,wley. Lincoln. W. T. Sherman. Alabama 20 2 17 i Arkansu-s 14 11 3 California 16 16 ( 'olorado. 6 6 Connect ieut 12 12 I vlaware 6 5 1 Klorida 8 1 7 ( iiMir^iii 24 24 Illinois 44 i 1 40 t t Illiliaiia 30 18 10 2 Iowa 26 26 Kansas 18 15 2 1 Kentucky 26 6 16 2 I 1 Louisiana 16 4 9 2 Muint'. 12 12 Maryland. 16 ft 4 Ma>>acl in setts 28 11 3 24 Michigan 26 18 4 3 1 1 Minnesota . 14 7 2 5 Mississippi 18 1 16 1 Missouri 32 12 11 4 4 Nebraska 10 10 Nevada 6 6 New Hampshire. 8 5 3 New Jersey 18 11 1 i Nt-w York 72 28 32 12 North Carolina 22 4 18 iiliio 46 S, 21 < 11 i "Oil 6 6 IVn nsvl vaniii 60 50 8 1 1 Ithodf Island 8 8 South ( 'arolina 18 2 16 Tennessee 24 7 17 Texas 26 14 11 1 Vermont 8 8 Virginia 24 4 20" \\Vst Virginia 12 12 Wisconsin 22 11 10 1 Ari/.ona 2 2 Dakota 2 2 Idaho 2 1 1 Montana 2 1 1 New Mexieo 2 2 I'tah 2 2 Washington | 2 \Vvomiii" 2 2 lii-t. of Columbia 2 1 1 Totals. 820 375 274 53 69 25 13 8 2 THE CHOICE. 349 THE FOURTH BALLOT. The Secretary called the roll of the states for the fourth and last ballot, which resulted as follows : States and Territories. Total vote. Arthur. Elaine Edmunds. d 1 Sherman, Hawley. Lincoln. Alabama 20 12 8 Arkansas 14 3 11 California 16 16 Colorado 6 6 Connecticut 12 12 Delaware 6 1 5 Florida 8 5 3 Georgia 24 24 Illinois ! 44 3 34 6 Indiana . 30 30 Iowa 26 2 24 Kansas 18 18 Kentucky 26 15 9 1 1 Louisiana . 16 7 9 Maine 12 12 Mar5 T land 16 1 15 Massachusetts 28 7 3 18 Michigan 26 26 Minnesota 14 14 Misssissippi 18 16 2 Missouri 32 32 Nebraska.. 10 10 Nevada 6 6 New Hampshire 8 2 3 3 New Jersey 18 17 1 New York 72 30 29 2 1 North Carolina 22 12 8 1 Ohio 46 46 Oregon 26 6 Pennsylvania . 60 8 51 1 Rhode Island . . 8 1 7 South Carolina 18 15 2 1 Tennessee 24 12 11 Texas . . . 26 8 15 Vermont, 8 8 Virginia 24 20 4 W^est Virginia 12 12 Wisconsin . 22 22 Arizona . 2 2 Dakota , 2 2 Idaho 2 2 Montana . . 2 2 New Mexico 2 j Utah 2 2 Washington 2 2 Wyoming 2 2 Dist. of Columbia 2 1 1 Totals , 820 i 207 I 541 I 41 35 LIFE OF JAMES G. ELAINE. During this ballot Illinois and Ohio swung into the Blaine line, amid the greatest cheering, and, at the conclusion, the Secretary announced the result of the fourth ballot for President as follows : Whole number of delegates, . . . 820 Whole number of votes cast, . . 816 Necessary to a choice, . . . .411 Robert T. Lincoln, .... 2 John A. Logan, ..... 7 Joseph Hawley, . . . . 15 George F. Edmunds, . . . .41 Chester A. Arthur, .... 207 James G. Blaine, ..... 541 The Secretary's announcement of the vote for James G. Blaine got no further than the hundreds, for his voice was lost in the whirlwind of applause that followed. Every person in the audience, delegates and visitors alike, rose to their feet simultaneously, and, all being Blaine men, shouted and sang their delight at the success of the man from Maine, with demonstrations of joy such as had not been seen before in the Convention. It took nearly thirty minutes to get to business, after which the nomination was made unanimous. * SUMMARY OF THE BALLOTING. Candidate. 1st. 2d. $d. 4//4. Blaine, 334^ 349 375 541 Arthur, 278 276 274 207 Edmunds, 93 85 69 41 Logan 63^ 61 53 7 THE CHOICE. 351 SUMMARY OF THE BALLOTING Continued. Candidate. 1st. 2d. ^d. ijh. Sherman, 30 28 25 o Hawley, ....... 13 13 13 15 Lincoln, 4 4 7 2 W. T. Sherman, ... 2 2 2 o Total votes cast. . 818 818 818 813 It was thought best not to be in a hurry about the nomination for vice-president. Mistakes have been made in that way, and conventions have at last learned that the tail of the ticket deserves some attention. A recess was taken until 8 o'clock in the evening. Meanwhile, there was an active and considerate canvass of names. Logan, Lincoln, Foraker, Gresham were most talked about, but the drift all the while was toward Logan, the only question being whether the black eagle of Illinois, as he has been called by his admirers, would consent to the use of his name for the second place on the ticket. He was plied with importuning telegrams, and at last it was posted on the bulletins at the hotels, where the delegates most congregate that he placed himself in the hands of kis friends. That settled it. The Convention was an army of his friends, largely under the leadership of men who had served with him in the late war. Those who were not already convinced of the propriety of the nomination, had been brought to it by the argu- 352 LIFE OF JAMES G. BLAINK. ment that, for the first time since the war a civilian had been nominated for president, and that the soldier element must have a place on the ticket. The other candidates diappeared from the field as if by magic, an when the Convention assembled again the name of John A. Logan was the only one presented. It was seconded by men from every section of the country, the only trouble being to put an end to the speech-making. It was moved that the nomina- tion be made by acclamation, but, on the appeal of the Illinois delegation, there was a call of the roll, and, except a few dissenters, the whole Conven- tion voted for Logan. CHAPTER VI. CONGRATULATIONS AND REJOICING. NOT alone in the convention at Chicago was there joy when the great work was so successfully accomplished, but all through the land the thrill was felt. Every city was stirred, and even the dullest hamlets were aroused by the news. Tele- graphic wires were alive with news and also with congratulations. At his distant home in Maine the Presidential nominee was at rest, and thither the electric messengers sped by the hundred. Among the first of these were the following : " To the Honorable James G. Elaine ', Augusta, Me. " As the candidate of the Republican party you will have my earnest and cordial support. " CHESTER A. ARTHUR." " UNITED STATES SENATE. "WASHINGTON, June 6. " Hon. James G. Blaine, Augusta, Me. " I most heartily congratulate you on your nomina- tion. You will be elected. Your friend, " JOHN A. LOGAN." Congratulatory telegrams continued to reach 353 354 I-IFE OF JAMES G. ELAINE. Mr. Elaine all through Friday night and Saturday in great numbers, not only from every State and Territory of the Union, but from beyond the sea. Many were received from Europe, among the most prominent being those of Minister Morton in Paris and Colonel John Hay and Clarence King in London. More than a thousand tele- grams were received within three hours after his nomination. The following specially touching telegram was received : "CLEVELAND, OHIO, June 7, 1884. " Our household joins in one great thanksgiving. From the quiet of our home we send our most earnest wish that, through the turbulent months to follow, and in the day of victory, you may be guarded and kept. " LUCRETIA R. GARFIELD." In addition to the above, the following note- worthy dispatches are given as fair samples of the many : " STILLWATER, IND., June 7, 1884. " Hon. James G. Blaine : " Vermont stood loyally by her favorite son to the last ; she now stands with equal loyalty to Maine's favorite, and will give him a rousing majority in November. " J. GREGORY SMITH, " Executive Chairman." " MADISON, Wis., June 7, 1 884. " Hon. James G. Elaine : " In behalf of the Republicans of Wisconsin we send greeting to you. The nomination is received with enthu- CONGRATULATIONS AND REJOICING. 355 siasm, and you will secure the largest majority ever given for any presidential candidate in Wisconsin. " J. M. RUSH." " CHICAGO, June 7, 1884. " Accept my heartiest congratulations. " E. B. WASHBURN." "TOLEDO, O., June 7, 1884. " Hon. James G. Elaine : " I congratulate you, but the party and country more. I have not been so well pleased since my wedding day. "E. R. LOCKE (' Nasby ')." " CHICAGO, June 7, 1884. " Hon. James G. Elaine : " Accept the heartiest congratulations of the Oregon delegation. Your nomination insures the largest Repub- lican majority in Oregon in November ever given by that State. " J. N. DOLPH, " Chairman of the Delegation." "INDIANAPOLIS, June 7, 1884. " Hon. James G. Elaine : " Accept my heartiest congratulations on your nomi- nation. We will give you the electoral vote of Indiana. " BENJ. HARRISON." "ATLANTA, GA., June 7, 1884. " Hon. James G. Elaine : " It is my pleasure to send the warmest congratulations of the Whig Republicans of Georgia, with pledges of our support. JAMES LONGSTREET." 356 LIFE OF JAMES G. ELAINE. Mr. Elaine's mail was equally burdened, its contents being so voluminous that circular letters, signed by the great nominee, and promising early attention to the missives addressed him, were all that could be sent out for many days, until the clerical corps for his uses could be organized. Within the first twenty-four hours after the nomi- nation many letters were received from solid and prominent men of New England, pledging him their cordial support. The formation of several Elaine Clubs were announced in his mail of the day following his nomination. When the news of his nomination was received, all Maine seems to have been filled with acclama- tions. At Augusta, the scenes of enthusiam were unprecedented. The streets speedily filled with exultant crowds, the bells rang out pseans of rejoicing, cannon boomed, and every factory whistle added its hoarse notes to the din and tumult. Later in the evening, there was a general illumi- nation of the town, and when a special train, filled with enthusiastic Republicans from Brunswick, Bath and other towns, reached Augusta, the dem- onstrations assumed a character really metropoli- tan. Moving in a body to the residence of Mr. Blaine, the multitude "made the welkin ring" with peal on peal of cheers, the tumult only sub- siding when the nominee appeared at the door- way and spoke as follows : " MY FRIENDS AND MY NEIGHBORS : I thank CONGRATULATIONS AND REJOICING. 357 you most sincerely for the honor of this call. There is no spot in the world where good news comes to me so gratefully as here at my own home, among the people with whom I have been on terms of friendship and intimacy for more than thirty years ; people whom I know and who know me.- Thanking you again for the heartiness of the compliment, I bid you good-night." On withdrawing, Mr. Elaine returned to his spacious parlors, into which a stream of people were pouring to take him by the hand. Mrs. Blaine and his daughters, with Gail Hamilton, were present and had their share of the honors bestowed. As soon as the people had paid their tributes of respect to Mr. Blaine, they took their departure, while their places were instantly rilled by others. Mr. Blaine gave a cordial shake of the hand to each one, and for those he recognized he had a pleasant word. At 10 o'clock, a special train from Portland reached Augusta, and an hour later a Pullman train from Bangor arrived, each bearing hundreds of people, who came expressly to congratulate Mr. Blaine on his nomi- nation. On the 9th, Augusta was again the scene of enthusiastic demonstrations in connection with the arrival of the California and other Western dele- gates to the National Convention, who visited the city to pay their respects to Mr. Blaine. These visitors remained for two or three days, being 358 1.IH-: OF JAMKS (,. ni.AINK. treated with characteristic hospitality by the citi- zens of the Maine capital. " Mr. Blaine does not seem to have been at all excited over the fact of his nomination. A press dispatch says: "He spent the afternoon on the lower front of his residence on State street, reclining in a hammock, under the shade of an apple-tree, white with blossoms, apparently per- fectly unconcerned at the fact that the eyes of the whole nation were upon him. His wife and sev- eral members of his family were around him ; Miss Dodge, Mr. Alden Sprague, of the Kenne- bec Journal, was also present. Maggie, one of Mr. Elaine's daughters, was stationed at the tele- phone in an upper room in the residence, taking the latest news, which was telephoned by James G. Blaine, Jr., from the telegraph office. As the dispatches came in, Mr. Blaine opened and read them. When the final news came, and the nomi- nation was made certain, there was no particular change in the manner of the party. Mr. Blaine did not appear affected in any way, but on the contrary exhibited the utmost equanimity. There was only a slight dilation of his big and lustrous eyes, which bespoke how deeply he felt and appre- ciated the great honor conferred upon him. A few minutes later, he betrayed a slight emotion, as he casually remarked that he owed much to the deoted men who had stood by him for so many years. In speaking of the result, he said that he CONGRATULATIONS AND REJOICING. 359 felt all the more gratified, because it was an honor that had come to him unsolicited. He had not lifted a finger to secure the nomination, or had made any endeavor in any direction to get it. He had received over seven thousand letters asking him to be a candidate, and had never answered one of them. Other remarks were made in a spirit worthy of the man, and then the conversation turned to other topics as if nothing had happened. But Mr. Elaine was not alone in the congratu- lations and compliments showered upon him. General Logan enjoyed greetings of similar favor. His official associates were prompt and exuberant in their expressions, as were old army associates, and friends in all parts of the country. He made a tour to Augusta to confer with his associate on the ticket, and this was an occasion of great rejoicing. Enthusiasm greeted him at all points of his journey. The visit was both social and political, and gave assurance that the chief men of the campaign will work in entire accord. On the evening of June 2ist, the ex-soldiers and sailors resident in Washington serenaded Gen- eral Logan. They assembled at the City Hall, and, forming in platoons of twelve, marched, headed by the Marine Band, to the General's resi- dence, where a crowd of two or three thousand citizens had already assembled. The proces- sion was liberally supplied with banners, rock- ets, Roman candles and noise-making devices. 360 LIFE OF JAMES G. ELAINE. The banner of the Army of the Tennessee was displayed from an upper window of General Logan's house. General Logan's appearance was greeted with a storm of -cheers. When the applause had subsided, he was introduced in a brief speech by General Green B. Raum. Gen- eral Logan then addressed the assemblage as follows : " Comrades and fellow-citizens: The warm expressions of confidence and congratulations which you offer me through your chairman, impress me with a deep sense of gratitude, and I beg to tender my sincerest thanks to one and all of my participating friends for this demonstration of kindness and esteem. Your visit at this time, gentlemen, is interesting to me in a double aspect. As citizens of our common country, tendering a tribute to me as a public man, I meet you with genuine pleasure and grateful acknowledgment. Coming, however, as you do, in the character of representatives of the soldiers and sailors of our country, your visit possesses a feature insensibly leading to a train of most interesting reflections. Your assemblage is composed of men who gave up the pursuits of peace, relinquished the com- forts of home, severed the ties of friendship and yielded the gentle and loving society of father, mother, sister, brother and, in many instances, wife and little ones, to brave the dangers of the tented field or the crested wave, to run the gaunt- CONGRATULATIONS AND REJOICING. 361 let of sickness in climates different from your own, and possibly, or even probably, to yield up life itself in the service of your country. " Twenty-three years ago, gentlemen, when dread war raised his wrinkled front throughout the land, many of you were standing with one foot on the portal of manhood, eager for the con- flict with the world which promised to bring you honor, riches and friends, and a life of peace and ease in the society of your own family. But few of you had passed the period of young manhood or advanced to the opening scene of middle life. At the call, however, of your endangered country you did not hesitate to leave everything for which we strive in this world to become defenders of the Union, without the incentive which has inspired men of other nations to adopt a military career as a permanent occupation, and as an outlet to ambition and an ascent to power. " The safety of our country having been assured, and its territorial integrity preserved, you sheathed the sword, unfixed the bayonet, laid away the musket, housed the cannon, doffed your uniforms, donned the garments of civil life, buried hatred towards our brothers of the South, and shook hands in testimony of a mutual resolve to rehabilitate the waste places and cultivate the arts of peace, until our re-united country should be greater, prouder and grander than ever. "Those years have glided into the retreating 362 LIFE OF JAMES G. BLAINE. perspective of the past since you responded to your country's call, and mighty changes in the eventful march of nations have taken place. This passing time has laid its gentle lines upon the heads of many of you who shouldered your muskets before the first beard was grown. But however lightly or however heavily it has dealt with you, your soldiers' and sailors' organizations that have been kept up prove that the heart has been untouched, and that your love of country has but been intensified with the advancing years. Your arms have been as strong and your voices as clear in the promotion of peace as when lent to the science of war, and the interest which you take in national affairs proves that you are patriot- ically determined to maintain what you fought for, and that which our lost comrades gave up their lives to secure for the benefit of those who survived them. " During the past twenty years, in which we have been blessed with peace, the Republican party has been continued in the administration of the Government. When the great question of preserving or giving up the Union of the States was presented to us it was the Republican party which affirmed its perpetuation. I open no wounds, nor do I resurrect any bad memories in stating this as an undeniable fact. When you and I, my friends, and that vast body of men, who, having declared in favor of preserving the CONGRATULATIONS AND REJOICING. 363 Union, were compelled to resort to the last dread measure the arbitrament of war we did so under the call of the Republican party. Many of us had been educated by our fathers in the Democratic school of politics, and many of us were acting with that party at the time the issue of war was presented to us. " For years the Democratic party had wielded the destinies of our Government and had served its purpose under the narrower views of an ideal Republic, which then existed. But the matrix of time has developed a new child of progress which saw the glory of day under the name of the Republican party. Its birth announced the con- ception of a higher, broader principle of human government than had been entertained by our forefathers. But few of us, perhaps none, took in the full dimensions of the coming fact at that early day. It broke upon us all gradually, like the light of the morning sun as he rises in the misty dawn above the sleepy mountain's top. At length it came in full blaze, and for the first time in the history of our Republic we began to give genuine vitality to the declaration of 1776, 'that all men are created equal,' and entitled to the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. "The Republican party was the unquestionable agency which bore these gifts to a waiting age, and it was the Democratic idea which disputed their value, first upon the field of battle, and sub- 364 LIFE OF JAMES G. BLAINK. sequently, and up to this moment, at the polling places of the country. The Republican party, then, repsesents the latest fruition of governmental progress, and is destined to survive upon the theory that the strong outlives the weak, until the development of principles still more advanced shall compel it to measure its step with the march of the age, or go to the wall as an instrument which has fulfilled its destiny. So long as the Democratic party shall cling, either in an open or covert manner, to the traditions and policy belonging to an expired era of our development, just so long will the Republican party be charged with the administration of our Government. " In making this arraignment of the Democracy, my friends, I appeal to no passions nor reopen settled questions. I but utter the calm, sober words of truth. I say that until every State in this broad and beneficent Union shall give free recognition to the civil and political rights of the humblest of its citizens, whatever his color ; until protection to American citizens follows the flag at home and abroad ; until the admirable monetary system established by the Republican party shall be placed beyond danger of subversion ; until American labor and industry shall be protected by wise and equitable laws, so as to give full scope to our immense resources and place every man upon the plane to which he is entitled by reason of his capacity and worth ; until education shall CONGRATULATIONS AND REJOICING. 365 be as general as our civilization; until we shall have established a wise American policy that will not only preserve peace with other nations, but will cause every American citizen to honor his government at home and every civilized nation to respect our flag ; until the American people shall permanently establish a thoroughly economic sys- tem upon the American idea which will preserve and foster their own interests, uninfluenced by English theories or " Cobden Clubs," and until it is conceded beyond subsequent revocation that this government exists upon the basis of a self- sustaining, self-preserving nation, and the fatal doctrine of "Independent States Sovereignty," upon which the civil war was founded, shall be stamped as a political heresy, out of which con- tinued revolution is born and wholly incompatible with that idea of a republic, the Republican party will have much work to do.and an unfulfilled mis- sion to perform. "The standard-bearer of the party in the ensu- ing campaign is the Hon. James G. Elaine, known throughout the land as one of its truest and ablest representatives. He has been called to this posi- tion by the voice of the people, in recognition of his especial fitness for the trust and in admiration of the surprising combination of brilliancy, cour- age, faithfulness, persistency and research that has made him one of the most remarkable figures which has appeared upon the forum of statescraft 366 LIFE OF JAMES G. BLAtNE. in any period of this country ; that such a man should have enemies and detractors is as natural as that our best fruits should be infested with parasites or that there should exist small and envi- ous minds which seek to belittle that which they can never hope to imitate or equal ; and that he shall triumph over these and lead the Republican hearts to another victory in November is as cer- tain as the succession of the seasons or the rolling of the spheres in their courses. Gentlemen, again I thank you for this visit of congratulation and extend to you, one and all, my grateful acknowl- edgments." General Logan was frequently interrupted with applause, particularly enthusiastic at his reference to our reunited country, greater, grander than before ; the mission of the Republican party to preserve peace with foreign nations and make our flag everywhere respected, and to Mr. Elaine as the standard-bearer of the party. The speech- making was continued to a late hour. Among the orators, who were all ex-soldiers, were Sena- tors Plumb and Harrison, General Cutcheon, of Michigan ; General Nathan GofF, of West Vir- ginia ; Hon. A. H. Pettibone, of Tennessee, and General T. M. Bayne, of Pennsylvania. CHAPTER VII. NOTIFICATION OF THE NOMINEES. AT an early hour on the morning of Saturday, June 2ist, the streets of Augusta, Me., began to assume a lively appearance, and long before the hour set for the committee appointed by the National Convention to notify Mr. Elaine of his nomination to the Presidential candidacy of the Republican party to perform that duty, a consid- erable crowd of citizens collected around the Augusta House to gaze upon the members of this distinguished body. Promptly at eleven o'clock the national com- mittee of notification proceeded in a body to Mr. Elaine's residence, where they were received by Mrs. Elaine. As the day was very warm, and the rooms of the mansion were crowded almost to suffocation, it was suggested that the presenta- tion of the addresses be made upon the lawn. Accordingly, the committee and guests proceeded to a well-shaded portion of the grounds, where a circle was formed and all present stood with uncovered heads, making an impressive scene, the rustling of spreading branches of great elms 367 368 I.IFI: OF JAMKS (i. IU.AIXK. and the buzzing of insects being the only sounds to disturb the stillness. When all was in readiness Mr. Elaine was escorted to the lawn, where he stood within the arc of the semi-circle, General Henderson then stepped forward and presented the address of the committee. Reading from manuscript, he spoke as follows : " Mr. Elaine, your nomination for the office of the Presi- dent of the United States by the National Republican Convention recently assembled at Chicago is already known to you. The gentlemen before you, constituting the committee composed of one member from each State and Territory of the country, and one from the District of Columbia, now come, as the accredited organ of that convention, to give you formal notice of nomination and request your acceptance thereof. It is, of course, known to you that, beside your own, several other names,among the most honored in the councils of the Republican party, were presented by their friends as candidates for this nomination. Between your friends and friends of gentle- men so justly entitled to the respect and confidence of their political associates, the contest was one of generous rivalry, free from any taint of bitterness and equally free from the reproach of injustice. " At an early stage of the proceedings of the Convention it became manifest that the Republican States, whose aid must be invoked at last to insure success to the ticket, earnestly desired your nomination. It was equally mani- fest that the desire so earnestly expressed by delegates from those States was but a truthful reflection of an irre- sistible popular demand. It was not thought nor pre- NOTIFICATION OF THE NOMINEES. 369 tended that this demand had its origin in any ambitious desires of your own, or in organized work of your friends, but it was recognized to be what it truthfully is, a spon- taneous expression by free people of love and admiration of a chosen leader. No nomination would have given satisfaction to every member of the party. This is not to be expected in a country so extended in area and so varied in interests. The nomination of Mr. Lincoln in 1860 disappointed so many hopes and overthrew so many cherished ambitions that for a short time disaffec- tion threatened to ripen in open revolt. In 1872 discon- tent was so pronounced as to impel large masses of the party in organized opposition to its nominees. For many weeks after the nomination of General Garfield, in 1880, defeat seemed almost inevitable. " In each case the shock of disappointment was fol- lowed by sober second thought. Individual preferences gradually yielded to convictions of public duty. Prompt- ings of patriotism finally rose superior to irritations and animosities of the hour. The party in every trial has grown stronger in the face of threatened danger. In ten- dering you the nomination it gives us pleasure to remem- ber that those great measures which furnished causes for party congratulations by the late convention at Chicago, and which are now crystallized into the legislation of the country, measures which have strengthened and dignified the nation, while they have elevated and advanced the people, at all times and on all proper occasions, received your earnest and valuable support. It was your good fortune to aid in protecting the nation against the assaults of armed treason. You were present and helped to unloose the shackles of the slave. You assisted in placing new guarantees of freedom in the Federal Con- stitution. Your voice was potent in preserving national 3 JO LIFK OF JAMES (',. HI. A INK. faith when false theories of finance would have blasted national and individual prosperity. We kindly remem- ber you as the fast friend of honest money and commer- cial integrity In all that pertains to security and repose of capital, dignity of labor, manhood elevation and free- dom of people, right of the oppressed to demand and duty of the Government to afford protection, your public acts have received the unqualified indorsement of popular approval. But we are not unmindful of the fact that parties, like individuals, cannot live on the past, however splendid the record. The present is ever charged with its immediate cares, and the future presses on with its new duties, its perplexing responsibilities. Parties, like individuals, however, that are free from stain of violated faith in the past, are fairly entitled to presumption of sincerity in their promises for the future. " Among the promises made by the party in its late convention at Chicago are economy and purity of admin- istration ; protection of citizens, native and naturalized, at home and abroad ; the prompt restoration of the navy ; a wise reduction of surplus revenue, relieving the tax- payers without injuring the laborer; preservation of public lands for actual settlers ; import duties, when necessary at all, to be levied, not for revenue only, but for the double purpose of revenue and protection ; regulation of internal commerce; settlement of international differ- ences by peaceful arbitration, but coupled with the reassertion and maintenance of the Monroe doctrine as interpreted by the fathers of the republic ; perseverance in the good work of civil service reform, to the end that dangers to free institutions which lurk in power of official patronage may be wisely and effectually avoided ; honest currency based on coin of intrinsic value, adding strength to the public credit and giving renewed vitality NOTIFICATION OF THE NOMINEES. 371 to every branch of American industry. Mr. Elaine, dur- ing the last twenty-three years the Republican party has builded a new republic a republic far more splendid than that originally designed by our fathers. Its pro- portions, already grand, may yet be enlarged ; its foundations may yet be strengthened and its columns be adorned with beauty more resplendent still. To you, as its architect in chief, will soon be assigned this grateful work." During this address Mr. Elaine stood under a shady elm, his arms folded across his chest and his eyes intently fixed on the ground. At the conclusion his son, Walker Elaine, stepped forward and handed him a manuscript, from which he read the following reply: " Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the National Committee : I receive not without deep sensibility your official notice of the action of the National Convention already brought to my knowledge by the public press. I appreciate more profoundly than I can express the honor which is implied in. the nomination for the Presidency by the Repub- lican party of the nation, speaking through the authoritative voice of duly accredited delegates. To be selected as a candidate by such an assemblage from lists of eminent statesmen whose names were presented fills me with embarrassment. I can only express my gratitude for so signal an honor, and my desire to prove worthy of the great trust reposed in me, In accepting the nomination, 37^ LIKE OK JAMES G. HLAINE. as I now do, I am impressed, I am also oppressed, with the sense of the labor and the responsibility which attach to my position. The burden is lightened, however, by the host of earnest men who support my candidacy, many of whom add, as does your honorable committee, cheer of personal friendship to the pledge of political fealty. More formal acceptance will naturally be expected, and will in due season be communicated. It may, however, not be inappropriate at this time to say that I have already made a careful study of the principles announced by the National Conven- tion, and that in whole and in detail they have my heartiest sympathy and meet my unqualified approval. Apart from your official errand, gentlemen, I am extremely happy to welcome you all to my house. With many of you I have already shared duties of public service, and have enjoyed most cordial friendship. I trust your journey from all parts of this great Republic has been agreeable, and that during your stay in Maine you will feel you are not among strangers, but with friends. Invoking blessings of God upon the great .cause which we jointly represent, let us trust to the future, without fear and with manly hearts." At the conclusion of Mr. Elaine's reply, the members of the committee were introduced to him individually, and an hour was spent in social informal converse. The members of the commit- NOTIFICATION OF THE NOMINEES. 373 tee then repaired to the residence of Colonel H. S. Osgood, where they were entertained at lunch, and at one o'clock they left for Portland. The 'committee arrived at Portland shortly after three o'clock, and were received by a delegation of the citizens' committee and escorted to the Falmouth Hotel in carriages. At a later hour they were driven about the city. In the evening there was a mass meeting at the City Hall to greet them, after which they took a special train for Boston, whence they started southward to meet the nomi- nee for the Vice-Presidency, and to discharge the official duty due in his case. At noon on Tuesday, June 24th, the National Committee of Notification met in a parlor of the Arlington Hotel, at Washington, to prepare the formal address to General Logan. Mr. Meldrum, of Wyoming, was chosen secretary, and the com- mittee, after reading and accepting an address prepared by the chairman, sent word to General Logan that they would wait upon him immediately. The messenger having returned with the reply that General Logan was ready to receive them, the committee proceeded to his house. The General stood in the middle of the room, Mrs. Logan at his right hand, and w ? as introduced to the members of the committee by the chairman. When this ceremohy had been performed, the com- pany arranged themselves in a circle around the room to hear the address. General Logan stood 374 LIFE OF JAMES G. ELAINE. leaning with one hand upon a table, and Mrs. Logan, who was the only lady present, stood opposite, her face radiant and her head nodding assent to the emphasized parts of the speech delivered by the chairman. Mr. Henderson read as follows : " Senator Logan : The gentlemen present constitute a committee of the Republican Convention recently assem- bled at Chicago, charged with the duty of communicating to you the formal notice of your nomination by that con- vention as a candidate for Vice President of the United States. You are not unaware of the fact that your name was presented to the Convention and urged by a large number of the delegates as a candidate for President. So soon, however, as it became apparent that Mr. Blaine, your colleague on the ticket, was the choice of the party for that high office, your friends, with those of other competitors, promptly yielded their individual preferences to this manifest wish of the majority. In tendering you this nomination we are able to assure you it was made without opposition, and with an enthusiasm seldom wit- nessed in the history of nominating conventions. " We are gratified to know that in a career of great use- fulness and distinction you have most effectively aided in the enactment of those measures of legislation and of constitutional reform in which the Convention found special cause for hearty congratulation. The principles enunciated in the platform adopted will be recognized by you as the same which have so long governed and con- trolled your political conduct. The pledges made by the party find guaranty of performance in the fidelity with which you have heretofore discharged every trust NOTIFICATION OF THE NOMINEES. 375 confided to your keeping. In your election the people of this country will furnish new proof of the excellence of our institutions. Without wealth, without help from others, without any resources, except those of the heart, conscience, intellect, energy and courage, you have won a high place in the world's history and secured the con- fidence and affection of your countrymen. Being one of the people, your sympathies are with the people. In civil life your chief care has been to better their condi- tion, to secure their rights and to perpetuate their liber- ties. " When the government was threatened by armed treason you entered its service as a private, became a commander of armies and are now the idol of the citizen soldiers of the republic. Such, in the judgment of your party, is the candidate it has selected, and in behalf of that party we ask you to accept its nomination." After a brief interval, General Logan turned to the table, took up a few sheets of manuscript and read his reply as follows : " Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the Committee : I receive your visit with pleasure and accept with gratitude the sentiments you have so generously expressed in the discharge of the duty with which you have been entrusted by the National Republican Convention. Intending to address you a formal communication shortly in accord- ance with the recognized usage, it would be out of place to detain you at this time with remarks which properly belong to the official utterances of a letter of acceptance. I may be permitted to say, however, that though I did not seek the nomination of Vice President, I accept it as a trust reposed in me by the Republican party, to the 3/6 LIFE OK JAM US G. BLAINE. advancement of whose broad policy upon all questions connected with the progress of our government and our people I have dedicated my best energies ; and with this acceptance I may properly signify my approval of the platform of principles adopted by the Convention. I am deeply sensible of the honor conferred upon me by my friends so unanimously tendering me this nomination, and I sincerely thank them for this tribute. lam not unmind- ful of the great responsibilities attaching to the office and if elected I shall enter upon the performance of its duties with the firm conviction that he who has such a unani- mous support of his party friends as the circumstances connected with the nomination and your own words, Mr. Chairman, indicate, and consequently such a wealth of counsel to "draw upon, cannot fail in the proper discharge of the duties committed to him. I tender you my thanks, Mr. Chairman, for the kind expressions you have made, and I offer you and your fellow committeemen my most cordial greeting." When General Logan had concluded the chair- man stepped forward and shook him by the hand, as did the other members of the committee, and mutual congratulations were exchanged. Mrs. Logan warmly thanked Chairman Henderson for the sentiments conveyed in his address. The members of the committee then took their leave, with the exception of a few, who remained in con- versation with the General and his wife. CHAPTER VIII. LETTERS OF ACCEPTANCE. A CANDIDATE'S letter of acceptance is justly deemed a matter of momentous importance. It is an utterance made in full view of all the facts in the case. Omissions of valuable points, or unhappy statements of any points, are damaging beyond recall. No wonder, therefore, that both the nominees of the Republican party took ample time to prepare for this ordeal of a written and authoritative acceptance of the posts tendered. As these sheets go to press, the important documents are not yet made public. All fore- shadowings of their import are presumptive, perhaps visionary ; but Mr. Elaine's letter, it is said by those who are familiar with the proposed scope of that important document, will be one of the most comprehensive, spirited and appropriate papers of the kind ever given to the public. It is understood that it will anticipate the great doc- trines of administration which would be applied, in event of success, to National affairs, and par- ticularly with reference to the stimulation and establishment of wider fields for commercial and industrial enterprise and the promulgation of a 377 378 LETTERS OF ACCEPTANCE. foreign policy which would be in its highest and broadest sense American, and a home policy both vigorous and progressive, on the one hand mind- ful of every established interest of the people, and on the other aiming at more extended develop- ment. In a word, the position of the standard- bearer of the Republican party will be essentially American. His aim will evidently be to place the party under his leadership upon the platform of American destiny in the fullest sense of the term, commercial, mercantile, industrial, social, eco- nomic and diplomatic, and in contradistinction to the domination of principles of an economic and social nature, essentially un-American and Eng- lish. It may force the issue of American destiny versus English influence. It is apparent that the letter will draw the lines of National and individ- ual interest sharply, and will result in a campaign in which the people will have full scope for that discriminating judgment which of late years has so largely characterized the public verdict on questions involving the public weal. General Logan's letter of acceptance will go beyond the usual limits of a mere formal recogni- tion of the honor conferred upon him by the Con- vention. It has often happened that the second place has been filled by men of inferior calibre or of a second-rate place in National matters. The long association of General Logan with public af- fairs warrant him in treating his nomination as an LETTERS OF ACCEPTANCE. 379 occasion for observations upon public questions, and he is capable of such discussion. Clear- headed and true-hearted, he clarifies and bright- ens whatever he grasps. It is expected also that both candidates will enforce their letters by their deeds. Both are able organizers, speakers, and workers, and if the prophecy that they will "make things hum" is not realized, it will not be for lack of power in either of the candidates. SKETCHES ALL 'THK RRKSIDKNTS UNITED STATES. 381 OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF THE NATION'S HISTORY. GEORGE WASHINGTON, FIRST President of the United States, was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, on the 22d of February, 1732. He was the son of Augustine Washington, a wealthy planter, and his second wife, Mary Ball. John Washington, the great-grandfather of the illus- trious subject of this sketch, emigrated from Eng- land and settled in Virginia about 1657. George Washington's father died when he was in his o eleventh year, leaving him in the care of his mother, a woman of marked strength of charac- ter. She was worthy of her trust. From her he acquired that self-restraint, love of order, and strict regard for justice and fair dealing, which, with his inherent probity and truthfulness, formed the basis of a character rarely equaled for its simple, yet commanding nobleness. Apart from his mother's training, the youthful Washington received only the ordinary country- 385 3S6 OCA 1 FORMER PRESIDENTS. school education of the time, never having attended college, or taken instruction in the ancient lan- guages. He had no inclination for any but the most practical studies, but in these he was remark- ably precocious. When barely sixteen Lord Fair- fax, who had become greatly interested in the promising lad, engaged him to survey his vast estates lying in the wilderness west of the Blue Ridge. So satisfactory was his performance of this perilous and difficult task, that, on its comple- tion, he was appointed Public Surveyor. This office he held for three years, acquiring consider- able pecuniary benefits, as well as a knowledge of the country, which was of value to him in his subsequent military career. When only nineteen, Washington was appointed Military Inspector of one of the districts into which Virginia was then divided. In November, 1753, he was sent by Governor Dinwiddie on a mission to the French posts, near the Ohio River, to ascer- tain the designs of France in that quarter. It was a mission of hardship and peril, performed with rare prudence, sagacity, and resolution. Its bril- liant success laid the foundation of his fortunes. "From that time," says Irving, "Washington was the rising hope of Virginia." Of Washington's services in the resulting war, we cannot speak in detail. An unfortunate mili- tary expedition to the frontier was followed by a campaign under Braddock, whom he accompanied GEORGE WASHINGTON. as aid-de-camp, with the rank of colonel, in his march against Fort Duquesne. That imprudent General, scorning the advice of his youthful aid, met disastrous defeat and death. In the battle, Washington's coat was pierced by four bullets. His bravery and presence of mind alone saved the army from total destruction. Washington, on his return, was appointed com- mander-in-chief of all the troops of the colony, then numbering about two thousand men. This was in 1755, when he was but little more than twenty-three years of age. Having led the Vir- ginia troops in Forbes' expedition in 1758, by which Fort Duquesne was captured, he resigned his commission, and, in January, 1759, married Mrs. Martha Custis (nee Dandridge), and settled down at Mount Vernon, on the Potomac, which estate he had inherited from his elder brother Lawrence, and to which he added until it reached some eight thousand acres. The fifteen years following his marriage were, to Washington, years of such happiness as is rarely accorded to mortals. It was the halcyon period of his life. His home was the centre of a generous hospitality, where the duties of a busy planter and of a Judge of the County Court were varied by rural enjoyments and social intercourse. He managed his estates with prudence and econ- omy. He slurred over nothing, and exhibited, even then, that rigid adherence to system and ^S8 OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. accuracy of detail which subsequently marked his performance of his public duties. In the difficulties which presently arose between Great Britain and her American Colonies, Wash- ington sympathized deeply with the latter, and took an earnest, though not specially prominent part in those movements which finally led to the War of Independence. In the first general Con- gress of the Colonies, which met in Philadelphia, on the 5th of September, 1774, we find the name of Washington among the Virginia Delegates. As to the part he took in that Congress, we can only judge from a remark made by Patrick Henry, also a Delegate : " Colonel Washington," said the great orator, "was undoubtedly the greatest man on that floor, if you speak of solid information and sound judgment." In the councils of his native province, we also get glimpses of his calm and dignified presence. And he is ever on the side of the Colonies mod- erate, yet resolute, hopeful of an amicable adjust- ment of difficulties, yet advocating measures look- ing to a final appeal to arms. At length the storm broke. The Battle of Lexington called the whole country to arms. While in the East the rude militia of New Eng- land beleaguered Boston with undisciplined but stern determination, Congress, in May, 1775, met a second time in Philadelphia. A Federal Union was formed and an army called for. As chair- GEORGE WASHINGTON. ogg man of the various Committees on Military Affairs, Washington drew up most of the rules and regu- lations of the army, and devised measures for defense. The question now arose By whom was the army to be led ? Hancock, of Massa- chusetts, was ambitious of the place. Sectional jealousies showed themselves. Happily, how- ever, Johnson, of Maryland, rising in his seat, nominated Washington. The election was by ballot, and unanimous. Modestly expressing sin- cere doubts as to his capability, Washington accepted the position with thanks, but refused to receive any salary. " I will keep an exact account of my expenses," he said. " These I doubt not Congress will discharge. That is all I desire." On the 1 5th of June he received his commis- sion. Writing a tender letter to his wife, he rapidly prepared to start on the following day to the army before Boston. He was now in the full vigor of manhood, forty-three years of age, tall, stately, of powerful frame and commanding presence. " As he sat his horse with manly grace," says Irving, "his military bearing de- lighted every eye, and wherever he went the air rung with acclamations." On his way to the army, Washington met the tidings of the Battle of Bunker Hill. When told how bravely the militia had acted, a load seemed lifted from his heart. " The liberties of the coun- try are safe !" he exclaimed. On the 2d of July 39O OUIi FORMER PRESIDENTS. he took command of the troops, at Cambridge, Mass., the entire force then numbering about 1 5,000 men. It was not until March, 1776, that the siege of Boston ended in the withdrawal of the British forces. Washington's admirable con- duct of this siege drew forth the enthusiastic ap- plause of the nation. Congress had a gold medal struck, bearing the effigy of Washington as the Deliverer of Boston. Hastening to defend New York from threat- D ened attack, Washington there received, on the 9th of July, 1776, a copy of the "Declaration of Independence," adopted by Congress five days previously. On the 27th of the following month occurred the disastrous battle of Lon^ Island, the o misfortunes of which were retrieved, however, by Washington's admirable retreat, one of the most brilliant achievements of the war. Again defeated at White Plains, he was compelled to retire across New Jersey. On the 7th of De- cember he passed to the west side of the Dela- ware, at the head of a dispirited army of less than four thousand effective men. many of them with- out shoes, and leaving tracks of blood in the snow. This was the darkest period of the war. But suddenly, as if inspired, Washington, in the midst of a driving storm, on Christmas night re- crossing the Delaware, now filled with floating ice, gained in rapid succession the brilliant vic- tories of Trenton and Princeton, thus changing GEORGE WASHINGTON. the entire aspect of affairs. Never were victories better timed. The waning hopes of the people in their cause and their commander were at once restored as if by magic. It is not possible, in this necessarily brief sketch, to give the details of the agonizing strug- gle in which Washington and his little army were now involved. Superior numbers and equip- ments often inflicted upon him disasters which would have crushed a less resolute spirit. Cheered, however, by occasional glimpses of vic- tory, and wisely taking advantage of what his troops learned in hardship and defeat, he was at length enabled, by one sagacious and deeply planned movement, to bring the war virtually to a close in the capture of the British army of 7,000 men, under Cornwallis, at Yorktown, on the i gth of October, 1781. The tidings of the surrender of Cornwallis o filled the country with joy. The lull in the ac- tivity of both Congress and the people was not viewed with favor by Washington. It was a period of peril. Idleness in the army fostered discontents there, which at one time threatened the gravest mischief. It was only by the utmost exertion that Washington induced the malcon- tents to turn a deaf ear to those who were at- tempting, as he alleged, " to open the flood-gates of civil discord, and deluge our rising empire with blood." OUK FORMER PRESIDENTS. On September 3d, 1 783, a treaty of peace was signed at Paris, by which the complete indepen- dence of the United States was secured. On the 23d of December following, Washington for- mally resigned his command. The very next morninof he hastened to his beloved Mount Ver- o non, arriving there that evening, in time to enjoy the festivities which there greeted him. Washington was not long permitted to enjoy his retirement. Indeed, his solicitude for the per- petuity of the political fabric he had helped to raise he could not have shaken off if he would. Unconsciously, it might have been, by his letters to his old friends still in public life, he continued to exercise a powerful influence on national affairs. He was one of the first to propose a remodeling of the Articles of Confederation, which were now acknowledged to be insufficient for their purpose. At length, a convention of delegates from the several States, to form a new Constitution, met at Philadelphia, in May, 1787. Washington pre- sided over its session, which was long and stormy. After four months of deliberation was formed that Constitution under which, with some subse- quent amendments, we now live. When the new Constitution was finally ratified, Washington was called to the Presidency by the unanimous voice of the people. In April, 1 789, he set out from Mount Vernon for New York, then the seat qf Government, to be inaugurated. GEORGE WASHINGTON. "His progress," says Irving, " was a continuous ovation. The ringing of bells and the roaring of cannon proclaimed his course. Old and young, women and children, thronged the highways to bless and welcome him." His inauguration took place April 3Oth, 1 789, before an immense multi- tude. The eight years of Washington's Administra- tion were years of trouble and difficulty. The two parties which had sprung up the Federalist and the Republican were greatly embittered against each other, each charging the other with the most unpatriotic designs. No other man than Washington could have carried the country safely through so perilous a period. His prudent, firm, yet conciliatory spirit, aided by the love and ven- eration with which the people regarded him, kept down insurrection and silenced discontent. That he passed through this trying period safely cannot but be a matter of astonishment. The angry partisan contests, to which we have referred, were of themselves sufficient to dis- hearten any common man. Even Washington was distrustful of the event, so fiercely were the par- tisans of both parties enlisted the Federalists clamoring for a stronger government, the Repub- licans for additional checks on the power already intrusted to the Executive. Besides, the Revolu- tion then raging in France became a source of contention. The Federalists sided with England, 394 OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. who was bent on crushing that Revolution; the Republicans, on the other hand, sympathized deeply with the French people : so that between them both, it was with extreme difficulty that the President could prevent our young Republic, bur- dened with debt, her people groaning under taxes necessarily heavy, and with finances, commerce, and the industrial arts in a condition of chaos, from being dragged into a fresh war with either France or England. But, before retiring from the Presidency, Wash- ington had the happiness of seeing many of the difficulties from which he had apprehended so much, placed in a fair way of final adjustment. A finan- cial system was developed which lightened the burden of public debt and revived the drooping energies of the people. The country progressed rapidly. Immigrants flocked to our shores, and the regions west of the Alleofhanies bep-an to fill o o o up. New States claimed admission and were received into the Union Vermont, in 1791 ; Ken- tucky, in 1792 ; and Tennessee, in 1796 ; so that, before the close of Washington's second term, the original thirteen States had increased to sixteen. Having- served two Presidential terms, Wash- O inc[ton, declining another election, returned once O O more to Mount Vernon, " that haven of repose to which he had so often turned a wistful eye," bear- ing with him the love and gratitude of his country- men, to whom, in his memorable " Farewell Ad- GEORGE WASHINGTON. dress," he bequeathed a legacy of practical politi- cal wisdom which it will be well for them to remember and profit by. In this immortal docu- ment he insisted that the union of the States was "a main pillar" in the real independence of the people. He also entreated them to " steer clear of any permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world." At Mount Vernon Washington found constant occupation in the supervision of his various estates. It was while taking his usual round on horseback to look after his farms, that, on the 1 2th of December, 1799, he encountered a cold, winter storm. He reached home chill and damp. The next day he had a sore throat, with some hoarse- ness. By the morning of the I4th he could scarcely swallow. " I find I am going," said he to a friend. " I believed from the first that the attack would be fatal." That nio-ht, between ten o ' and eleven, he expired, without a struggle or a sigh, in the sixty-eighth year of his age, his disease being acute laryngitis. Three days afterward his remains were deposited in the family tombs at Mount Vernon, where they still repose. Washington left a reputation on which there is no stain. " His character," says Irving, " possessed fewer inequalities, and a rarer union of virtues than perhaps ever fell to the lot of one. man. * * * It seems as if Providence had endowed him in a pre-eminent degree with the qualities OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. requisite to fit him for the high destiny he was called upon to fulfill." In stature Washington was six feet two inches in height, well proportioned, and firmly built. His hair was brown, his eyes blue and set far apart. From boyhood he was famous for great strength and agility. Jefferson pronounced him "the best horseman of his age, and the most grace- ful figure that could be seen on horseback." He was scrupulously neat, gentlemanly, and punctual, and always dignified and reserved. In the resolution passed upon learning of his death, the National House of Representatives described him for the first time in that well-known phrase, " First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen," a tribute which succeding generations have continued to bestow upon Washington without question or doubt. By common consent to him is accorded as pre-emi- nently appropriate the title, " Pater Patriae," the " Father of his Country." Of Washington, Lord Brougham says : " It will be the duty of the historian and the sage, in all ages, to omit no occasion of commemorating this illustrious man ; and until time shall be no more will a test of the progress our race has made in wisdom and virtue be derived from the veneration paid to the immortal name of Washington." JOHN ADAMS. JOHN ADAMS, SECOND President of the United States, was born at Braintree, now Quincy, Mass., October i gth, 1 735. He was the eldest son of John Adams, a farmer, and Susanna Boylston. Graduating from Harvard in 1755, he studied law, defraying his expenses by teaching. In 1764, hav- ing meanwhile been admitted to the bar, he mar- ried Miss Abigail Smith, a lady whose energy of character contributed largely to his subsequent advancement. As early as 1761, we find young Adams look- ing forward, with prophetic vision, to American Independence. When the memorable Stamp Act was passed in 1765, he joined heart and soul in opposition to it. A series of resolutions which he drew up against it and presented to the citizens of Braintree was adopted also by more than forty other towns in the Province. He took the ad- vanced grounds that it was absolutely void Parliament having no right to tax the Colonies. In 1 768 he removed to Boston. The rise of the young lawyer was now rapid, and he was the lead- ing man in many prominent cases. When, in Sep- tember, 1774, the first Colonial Congress met, at Philadelphia, Adams was one of the five Delegates from Massachusetts. In that Congress he took 5 a prominent part He it was who, on the 6th of 40O O( -'K FORMER I^RESIDENTS. May, 1776, boldly advanced upon the path of Independence, by moving " the adoption of such measures as would best conduce to the happiness and safety of the American people." It was Adams, who, a month later, seconded the resolu- tion of Lee, of Virginia, " that these United States are, and of right ought to be, independent." It was he who uttered the famous words, " Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, with my country is my unalterable determination." He, too, it was, who, with Jefferson, Franklin, Sher- man, and Livingston, drew up that famous " Dec- laration of Independence," which, adopted by Con- gress on the 4th of July, 1776, decided a question, " greater, perhaps, than ever was or will be de- cided anywhere." During all these years of engrossing public duty he produced many able essays on the rights of the Colonies. These ap- peared in the leading journals of the day and exerted wide influence. The motion to prepare a Declaration of Independence was opposed by a strong party, to the champion of which Adams made reply and Jefferson said, "John Adams was the ablest advocate and champion of indepen- dence on the floor of the House." Writing to his wife on July 3d, 1776, and refer- ring to the Declaration of Independence, that day adopted, he forecast the manner of that day's celebration by bonfires, fireworks, etc., as " the great anniversary festival." During all the years c r o e S 5- s: JOHN ADAMS. of the war he was a most zealous worker and val- ued counselor. After its years of gloom and trial, on the 2ist of January, 1783, he assisted in the conclusion of a treaty of peace, by which Great Britain acknowledged the complete inde- pendence of the United States. On the previous October, he had achieved what he ever regarded as the greatest success of his life the formation o of a treaty of peace and alliance with Holland, which had a most important bearing on the nego- tiations leading to the final adjustment with Eng- land. He was United States Minister to England from 1785 to 1788, and Vice-President during both the terms of Washington. During these years, as presiding officer of the Senate, he gave no less than twenty casting votes, all of them on ques- tions of great importance, and all supporting the policy of the President. Mr. Adams was himself inaugurated President on the 4th of March, 1797, having been elected over Jefferson by a small majority. Thomas Pinckney was nominated for the Vice-Presidency with him, they representing the Federal party, but in the Electoral College Thomas Jefferson received the choice and became Vice-President. He retained as his Cabinet the officers previously chosen by Washington. He came into office at a critical period. The conduct of the French Directory, in refusing to receive our ambassadors, and in trying to injure 404 OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. our commerce by unjust decrees, excited intense ill-feeling, and finally led to what is known as "the Quasi War " with France. Congress now passed the so-called "Alien and Sedition Laws," by which extraordinary and, it is alleged, unconstitutional powers were conferred upon the President. Though the apprehended war was averted, the odium of these laws effectually destroyed the pop- ularity of Adams, who, on running for a second term, was defeated by Mr. Jefferson, representing the Republicans, who were the Democratic party of that day. On the 4th of March, 1801, he re- tired to private life on his farm near Quincy. His course as President had brought upon him the reproaches of both parties, and his days were ended in comparative obscurity and neglect. He lived to see his son, John Quincy Adams, in the Presidential chair. By a singular coincidence, the death of Mr. Adams and that of his old political rival, Jefferson, took place on the same day, and almost at the same hour. Stranger still, it was on July the 4th, 1826, whilst bells were rincrin^ and cannon roar- o o ing to celebrate the fiftieth Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, their own immortal production, that these two men passed away. Mr. Adams was asked if he knew what day it was. "Oh! yes!" he exclaimed, "It is the Fourth of July. God bless it! God bless you all ! It is a great and glorious day!" and soon after quietly expired, in the ninety-first year of his age. THOMAS JEFFERSON. Mr. Adams possessed a vigorous and polished intellect, and was one of the most upright of men. His character was one to command respect, rather than to win affection. There was a certain lack of warmth in his stately courtesy which seemed to forbid approach. Yet nobody, we are told, could know him intimately without admiring the simplicity and truth which shone in all his actions. THOMAS JEFFERSON. THOMAS JEFFERSON, who succeeded Adams as President, was born at Shadwell, Albermark County, Va., April 2d, 1743. Peter Jefferson, his father, was a man of great force of character and of remarkably powerful physique. His mother, Jane Randolph, was from a most respectable English family. He was the eldest of eight children. He became a classical student when a mere boy, and entered college in an advanced class when but seventeen years of age. Having passed through college, he studied law under Judge Wythe, and in 1 767 commenced practice. In 1769, he was elected to the Virginia Legislature. Three years later, he married Mrs. Martha Skelton, a rich, handsome, and accom- plished young widow, with whom he went to reside in his new mansion at Monticello, near to the spot where he was born. His practice at the bar grew OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. rapidly and became very lucrative, and he early engaged in the political affairs of his own State. For years the breach between England and her Colonies had been rapidly widening. Jefferson earnestly advocated the right of the latter to local self-government, and wrote a pamphlet on the subject which attracted much attention on both sides of the Atlantic. By the spring of 1775 the Colonies were in revolt. We now find Jefferson in the Continental Congress the youngest mem- ber save one. His arrival had been anxiously awaited. He had the reputation " of a matchless pen." Though silent on the floor, in committee " he was prompt, frank, explicit, and decisive." Early in June, 1776, a committee, with Jefferson as chairman, was appointed to draw up a " Decla- ration of Independence." Unanimously urged by his associates to write it, he did so, Franklin and Adams, only, making a few verbal alterations. Jefferson has been charged with plagiarism in the composition of this ever-memorable paper. Vol- umes have been written on the subject; but those who have investigated the closest, declare, that the Mecklenburg Declaration, from which he was charged with plagiarism, was not then in existence. Jefferson distinctly denies having seen it. Prob- ably, in preparing it, he used many of the popular phrases of the time ; and hence it was that it seized so quickly and so irresistibly upon the public heart. It was the crystallized expression THOMAS JEFFERSON. of the spirit of the age. Edward Everett pro- nounced this Declaration " equal to anything ever born on parchment or expressed in the visible signs of thought." Bancroft declares, " The heart o O of Jefferson in writing it, and of Congress in adopting it, beat for all humanity." Chosen a second time to Congress, Jefferson declined the appointment, in order that he might labor in re-organizing Virginia. He therefore accepted a seat in the Legislature, where he zealously applied himself to revising the funda- mental laws of the State. The abolition of primo- geniture and the Church establishment was the result of his labors, and he was justly proud of it. No more important advance could have been made. It was a step from middle-age darkness into the broad light of modern civilization. In 1778, Jefferson procured the passage of a law prohibiting the further importation of slaves. The following year he was elected Governor, succeeding Patrick Henry in this honorable posi- tion, and at the close of his official term he again sought the retirement of Monticello. In 1782, shortly after the death of his beloved wife, he was summoned to act as one of the Commissioners to negotiate peace with England. He was not required to sail, however ; but, taking a seat in Congress, during the winter of 1783, he, who had drawn up the Declaration of Independence, was the first to officially announce its final triumph. OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. At the next session of Congress, he secured the adoption of our present admirable system of coin- age. As chairman of a committee to draft rules o for the government of our Northwest Territory he endeavored, but without success, to secure the prohibition of slavery therefrom forever. In May, 1 784, he was sent to Europe, to assist Adams and Franklin in negotiating treaties of commerce with foreign nations. Returning home in 1789, he received from Washington the appointment of Secretary of State, which office he resigned in 1 793. He withdrew, says Marshall, " at a time when he stood particularly high in the esteem of his coun- trymen." His friendship for France, and his dis- like of England ; his warm opposition to the aggrandizement of the central power of the Gov- ernment, and his earnest advocacy of every mea- sure tending to enlarge popular freedom, had won for him a large following, and he now stood the acknowledged leader of the great and growing Anti-federal party. Washington declining a third term, Adams, as we have already seen, succeeded him, Jefferson becoming Vice-President. At the next election, Jefferson and Burr, the Republican candidates, stood highest on the list. By the election law of that period, he who had the greatest number of votes was to be President, while the Vice-Presi- dency fell to the next highest candidate. Jeffer- son and Burr having an equal number of votes, THOMAS JEFFERSON. . j it remained for the House of Representatives to decide which should be President. After a long and heated canvass, Jefferson was chosen on the thirty-sixth ballot. He was inaugurated, on the 4th of March, 1801, at Washington, whither the Capitol had been removed a few months pre- viously. In 1804, he was re-elected by an over- whelming majority. At the close of his second term, he retired once more to the quiet of Monti- cello. The most important public measure of Jeffer- son's Administration, to the success of which he directed his strongest endeavors, was the pur- chase from France, for the insignificant sum of $15,000,000, of the immense Territory of Louisi- ana. It was during his Administration, too, that the conspiracy of Burr was discovered, and thwarted by the prompt and decisive action of the President. Burr's scheme was a mad one to break up the Union, and erect a new empire, with Mexico as its seat. Jefferson is regarded as hav- ing initiated the custom of removing incumbents from office on political grounds alone. From the retirement into which he withdrew at the end of his second term, Jefferson never emerged. His time was actively employed in the management of his property and in his exten- sive correspondence. In establishing- a Univer- sity at Charlottesville, Jefferson took a deep in- terest, devoting to it much of his time and means. 4 1 4 OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. He was proud of his work, and directed that the words " Father of the University of Virginia " should be inscribed upon his tomb. He died, shortly after mid-day, on the Fourth of July, 1826, a few hours before his venerable friend and compatriot, Adams. Jefferson was the very embodiment of the democracy he sought to make the distinctive feat- ure of his party. All titles were distasteful to him, even the prefix Mr. His garb and manners were such that the humblest farmer was at home in his society. He declared that in view of the existence of slavery he " trembled for his coun- try when he remembered that God is just." He was of splendid physique, being six feet two and a half inches in height, but well built and sinewy. His hair was of a reddish brown, his countenance ruddy, his eyes light hazel. Both he and his wife were wealthy, but they spent freely and died in- solvent, leaving but one daughter. His moral character was of the highest order. Profanity he could not endure, either in himself or others. He never touched cards, or strong drink in any form. He was onre of the most generous of men, lavishly hospitable, and in everything a thorough gentleman. Gifted with an intellect far above the average, he had added to it a surprising culture, which ranked him among our most accomplished scholars. To his extended learning, to his ardent love of lib- JAMES MADISON. , T r erty, and to his broad and tolerant views, is due much, very much, of whatever is admirable in our institutions. In them we discern everywhere traces of his master spirit. JAMES MADISON. WHEN Mr. Jefferson retired from the Presidency, the country was almost on the ver^e of war with Great Britain. o Disputes had arisen in regard to certain restric- tions laid by England upon our commerce. A hot discussion also came up about the right claimed and exercised by the commanders of English war-vessels, of searching American ships and of taking from them such seamen as they might choose to consider natives of Great Britain. Many and terrible wrongs had been perpetrated in the exercise of this alleged right. Hundreds of American citizens had been ruthlessly forced into the British service. It was when the public mind was agitated by such outrages, that James Madison, the fourth President of the United States, was inaugurated. When he took his seat, on the 4th of March, 1809, he lacked but a few days of being fifty-eight years of age, having been born on the I5th of March, 1751. His father was Colonel James Madison, his mother Nellie Conway. He gradu- 4! 6 OUR FORMER ated at Princeton College, New Jersey, in 1771, after which he studied law. In his twenty-sixth year he had been a member of the Convention which framed the Constitution of Virginia ; in 1 780 had been elected to the Continental Congress, in which he at once took a commanding position ; had subsequently entered the Virginia Legislature, where he co-operated with his friend and neighbor, Jefferson, in the ab- rogation of entail and primogeniture, and in the establishment of religious freedom ; had drawn up the call in answer to which the Convention to Draught a Constitution for the United States met at Philadelphia in 1787, and had been one of the most active members of that memorable assem- blage in reconciling the discordant elements of o o which it was composed. He had also labored earnestly to secure the adoption of the new Con- stitution by his native State ; had afterward en- tered Congress ; and when Jefferson became President, in March, 1801, had been by him ap- pointed Secretary of State, a post he had declined when it was vacated by Jefferson in December, 1793. In this important post for eight years, he won the highest esteem and confidence of the o nation. Having been nominated by the Repub- licans, he was in 1808 elected to the Presidency, receiving one hundred and twenty-two electoral votes, while Charles C. Pinckney, the Federal can- didate, received but forty-seven. JAMES MADISON. In 1794, he married Mrs. Dorothy Todd, a young widow lady, whose bright intelligence and fascinating manners were to gain her celebrity as one of the most remarkable women who ever presided over the domestic arrangements of the Presidential Mansion. Of a weak and delicate constitution, and with the habits of a student, Mr. Madison would have preferred peace to war. But even he lost patience at the insults heaped upon the young Republic by it ancient mother; and when, at length, on the 1 8th of June, 1812, Congress declared war against Great Britain, he gave the declaration his official sanction, and took active steps to enforce it. Though disasters in the early part of the war greatly strengthened the Federal party, who were bitterly opposed to hostilities, the ensuing Presi- dential canvass resulted in the re-election of Mr. Madison by a large majority, his competitor, De Witt Clinton, receiving eighty-nine electoral votes to one hundred and twenty-eight for Madison. On the 1 2th of August, 1814, a British army took Washington, the President himself narrowly esca- ping capture. The Presidential Mansion, the Cap- itol, and all the public buildings were wantonly burned. The i4th of December following, a treaty of peace was signed at Ghent, in which, however, England did not relinquish her claim to the right of search. But as she has not since attempted to exercise it, the question may be regarded as hav- ing been finally settled by the contest. OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. On the 4th of March, 1817, Madison's second term having expired, he withdrew to private life at his paternal home of Montpelier, Orange County, Va. During his administration, two new States had been added to the Union, making the total number at this period nineteen. The first to claim admittance was Louisiana, in 1812. It was formed out of the Southern portion of the vast Territory, purchased, during the Presidency of Jefferson, from France. Indiana the second State was admitted in 1816. After his retirement from office, Mr. Madison passed nearly a score of quiet years at Montpe- lier. With Jefferson, who was a not very distant neighbor, he co-operated in placing the Charlottes- ville University upon a substantial foundation. In 1829, he left his privacy to take part in the Con- vention which met at Richmond to revise the Constitution of the State. His death took place on the 28th of June, 1836, in the eighty-fifth year of his age. JAMES MONROE. MADISON'S successor in the Presidential chair was James Monroe, whose Admin- istration has been called " the Era of Good Feeling," from the temporary subsidence at that time of party strife. He was a son of Sperice Monroe, a planter. He was born on his father's JAMES MONROE. plantation in Westmoreland County, Va., on the 28th of April, 1758. At the age of sixteen he entered William and Mary College; but when, two years later, the Declaration of Independence called the Colonies to arms, the young collegian, dropping his books, girded on his sword, and en- tered the service of his country. Commissioned a lieutenant, he took part in the battles of Harlem Heights and White Plains. In the attack on Trenton he was wounded in the shoulder, and for his bravery promoted to a captaincy. Subse- quently he was attached to the staff of Lord Ster- ling with the rank of major, and fought by the side of Lafayette, when that officer was wounded at the battle of Brandywine, and also participated in the battles of Germantown and Monmouth. He was afterward given a colonel's commission, but, being unable to recruit a regiment, began the study of law in the office of Jefferson, then Gover- nor of Virginia. When only about twenty-three years old, he was elected to the Virginia Legislature. The next year he was sent to Congress. On the expiration of his term, having meanwhile married, in New York, Miss Kortright, a young lady of great intelligence and rare personal attractions, he re- turned to Fredericksburg, and commenced prac- tice as a lawyer. He espoused the cause of the Anti-Federal or Republican party, being thor- oughly democratic in his ideas, as was his eminent 420 OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. preceptor, Jefferson. In 1 789, he was elected to the United States Senate. In i 794, he was ap- pointed minister-plenipotentiary to France, but recalled from his mission two years later because of his 'outspoken sympathies with the republicans of that country. Shortly after his return, Monroe was elected Governor of Virginia, which post he held for three years (1799-1802). On the expiration of his official term, he was sent to co-operate with Ed- ward Livingston, then resident Minister at Paris, in negotiating the treaty by which the Territory of Louisiana was secured to the United States. In 1811, he was again elected Governor of Virginia, but presently resigned to become Madison's Sec- retary of State. During the period following the capture of Washington, September, i8i4-March, 1815, he acted as Secretary of War, and did much to restore the nation's power and credit. He continued Secretary of State until March, 1817, when he became President. He was chosen by the Dem- ocratic party, till then known as the Republican. He received one hundred and eighty-three elec- toral votes, his opponent, Rufus King, receiving but thirty-four votes. The violence of party spirit greatly abated during his first term, and he was re-elected in 1821, with but one dissenting vote out of the two hundred and thirty-two cast by the electoral college. On the 4th of March, 1825, he JAMES MONROE. . 2 j retired to the quiet and seclusion of his estate at Oak Hill, in Loudon County, Virginia. During Monroe's Administration, the bound- aries of the United States were considerably enlarged by the purchase of Florida from Spain. Five new States were also admitted into the Union: Mississippi, in 1817; Illinois, in 1818; Alabama, in 1819; Maine, in 1820; and Missouri, in 1821. The discussion in Congress over the admission of Missouri showed the existence of a new dis- turbing element in our national politics. It was the question of the further extension of slavery ; not so much in regard to its moral aspects as to its bearing on the question of the balance of polit- ical power. For a brief period two parties, one in favor of and the other against admitting any more Slave States, filled Congress and the country with angry discussion. This was quieted for the time by what is known as "the Missouri Compro- mise," which restricted slavery to the territory lying south of the southern boundary of Missouri. The somewhat celebrated " Monroe Doctrine " is regarded as one of the most important results of Monroe's Administration. It was enunciated in his message to Congress on the 2d of Decem- ber, 1823, and arose out of his sympathy for the new Republics then recently set up in South America. In substance it was, that the United States would never entangle themselves with the 422 OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. quarrels of Europe, nor allow Europe to interfere with the affairs of this continent. In 1830, the venerable ex-President went to reside with his son-in-law, Samuel L. Gouverneur, in New York, where he died in the seventy-fourth year of his age, on the 4th of July, 1831, being the third of our .five Revolutionary Presidents to pass from earth on the anniversary of that memorable day, which had contributed so largely to the shaping of their destinies. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, THE son of John Adams, our second Presi- dent, and himself the sixth chief executive of the Union, was born at Quincy, Mass., on the nth of July, 1767. He enjoyed rare opportunities for culture from his mother, who was a lady of very superior talents. While yet a mere boy, he twice accompanied his father to Europe, and at the age of fourteen was appointed private secretary to Francis Dana, then Minister to Russia. Graduating from Harvard in 1 788, he studied law under Theophilus Parsons, and com- menced practice in Boston in 1791. In 1794, he was appointed by Washington Minister to Holland. In July, 1797, he married Louisa, daughter of Joshua Johnson, then American Consul at London. In 1797, his. father, who was then President, gave him the mission to Berlin, being urged to this JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. , 2 , recognition of his own son by Washington, who pronounced the younger Adams " the most valu- able public character we have abroad." On the accession of Jefferson to the Presidency, Mr. Adams was recalled from Berlin. Soon after his return, however, he was elected to the United States Senate, where he speedily won a command- ing position, ardently supporting Jefferson's mea- sures of resistance against the arrogance and insolence of England in her encroachments upon our commerce and in her impressment of our seamen. The Legislature of Massachusetts having censured him for his course, Adams resigned his seat; but, in 1809, was selected by Madison to represent the United States at St. Petersburg. On the 24th of December, 1814, he, in conjunction with Clay and Gallatin, concluded the Treaty of Ghent, which closed " the Second War of Inde- pendence." In 1817, he was recalled to act as Secretary of State for President Monroe. At the election for Monroe's successor, in 1824, party spirit ran high. The contest was an excit- ing one. Of the two hundred and sixty electoral votes, Andrew Jackson received 99, John Quincy Adams 84, Wm. H. Crawford 41, and Henry Clay 37. As there was no choice by the people, the election devolved upon the House of Repre- sentatives. Here Mr. Clay gave the vote of Kentucky to Adam~, and otherwise promoted his cause, so that he received the votes of thirteen States, and \vas elected. OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. The Administration of the younger Adams, has been characterized as the purest and most economical on record. Yet, during his entire term, he was the objectof the most rancorous parti- san assaults. He had appointed Clay as his Sec- retary of State, whereat the Jackson men accused them both of "bargaining and corruption," and in all ways disparaged and condemned their work. In his official intercourse, it was said Adams often displayed " a formal coldness which froze like an iceberg." This coldness of manner, along with his advocacy of a high protective tariff and the policy of internal improvements, and his known hostility to slavery, made him many bitter enemies, especially in the South, and at the close of his first term he was probably the most unpopular man who could have aspired to the Presidency ; and yet, in his contest with Jackson at that time, Adams received eighty-three electoral votes, Jack- son being chosen by one hundred and seventy- eight. On the 4th of March, 1829, General Jackson having been elected President, Mr. Adams re- tired to private life; but, in 1831, was elected to the House of Representatives of the United States, where he took his seat, pledged, as he said, to no party. He at once became the leader of that little band, so insignificant in numbers, but powerful in determination and courage, who, re- garding slavery as both a moral and a political JOHN Q UINC Y ADAMS. , 2 r evil, began, in Congress, to advocate its abolition. By his continual presentation of petitions against slavery, he gradually yet irresistibly led the pub- lic mind to familiarize itself with the idea of its final extinction. To the fiery onslaughts of the Southern members he opposed a cold and unim- passioned front. In 1842, to show his consistency in upholding the right of petition, he presented to Congress the petition of some thirty or forty over-zealous anti-slavery persons for the dissolution of the Union. This brought upon the venerable ex- President a perfect tempest of indignation. Reso- lutions to expel him were introduced ; but, after eleven days of stormy discussion, they were laid on the table. The intrepidity displayed by " the old man eloquent " was beginning to tell. Even those who most bitterly opposed his doctrines were learning to respect him. When, after a season of illness, he re-appeared in Congress, in February, 1847, every member instinctively rose in his seat to do the old man honor. On the 2ist of February, 1848, Mr. Adams was struck down by paralysis on the floor of the House of Representatives. He was taken, senseless, into an ante-room. Recovering his consciousness, he looked calmly around, and said: "This is the last of earth: I am content." These were his last words. In an apartment beneath the dome of the Capitol he expired, on February 23d, in the eighty-first year of his age. 426 OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. ANDREW JACKSON, SEVENTH President of the United States, was born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, on the I5th of March, 1767. His father, who was a poor Irishman, dying a few days before Andrew's birth, he and his two older brothers were left to the care of his mother. The boys had little schooling. Andrew was a rude, turbulent lad, at once vindictive and gener- ous, full of mischief, but resolute, of indomitable courage, and wonderfully self-reliant. When but thirteen, fired by the death of his oldest brother, who had perished from heat and exhaustion at the Battle of Stono, he shouldered a musket and took part in the War of Independence. He and his remaining brother were made prisoners by the British, but were soon released through the exertions of their mother. It was during this captivity that Andrew received a wound from a British officer for refusing to black the boots of that dignitary. Both the released boys were soon sent home with the small-pox, of which the elder died, and Andrew barely escaped death. The mother went next, dying of ship fever, contracted while attending upon the patriot prisoners at Charleston. Thus left an orphan, Andrew worked a short time in a saddler's shop. He then tried school-teaching, and finally studied law, being ANDRE IV JA CKSON. 4 2 J admitted to practice when but twenty years old. At that time he was very commanding in appear- ance, being six feet one inch in height, and dis- tinguished for courage and activity. In 1791. Jackson married, at Nashville, where he had built up a lucrative practice, Mrs. Rachel Robards, the divorced wife, as both he and the lady herself supposed, of Mr. Lewis Robards. They had lived together two years, when it was discovered that Mrs. Robards was not fully di- vorced at the time of her second marriage. As, however, the divorce had subsequently been per- fected, the marriage ceremony was performed anew, in 1/94. In after years, this unfortunate mistake was made the basis of many calumni- ous charges against Jackson by his partisan enemies. Tennessee having been made a State in 1796, Jackson was successively its Representative and Senator in Congress, and a Judge of its Supreme Court. Resigning his judgeship in 1804, he en- tered into and carried on for a number of years an extensive trading business. He was also o elected at this period major-general in the militia. In 1806 he was severely wounded in a duel with Charles Dickenson, who had been making dis paraging remarks against his wife, something which Jackson could neither forget nor forgive. Dickenson fell mortally wounded, and, after suf- fering intense agony for a short time, died. This OLR FOKA/ER PRESIDENTS. sad affair, in which Jackson displayed much vin- dictiveness, made him for awhile very unpopular. When, in 1812, war was declared against Eng- land, Jackson promptly offered his services to the General Government. During the summer of 1813 he had another of those personal rencontres into which his fiery temper was continually lead- ing him. In an affray with Thomas H. Benton, he received a pistol-shot in the shoulder at the hands of Benton's brother, from the effects of which he never fully recovered. He was still suffering from the immediate consequences of this wound, when tidings were received at Nashville of the massacre at Fort Mimms by Creek Indians. Jack- son, regardless of his wounds, at once took the field. An energetic campaign, in which, winning victory after victory, he established his reputation as one of our best military chieftains, ended the Creek War, and broke forever the power of the Indian races in North America. In May, 1814, Jackson was made a major-gen- eral in the regular army and became the acknowl- edged military leader in the Southwest. New Orleans being threatened by the British, he hast- ened to defend it. There, on the 8th of January, 1815, with less than five thousand men, mostly untrained militia, he repulsed the attack of a well- appointed army of nearly fourteen thousand vet- eran troops, under some of the most distinguished officers in the English service. Generals Paken- ANDREW JACKSON. 429 ham and Gibbs r of the British forces, were killed, together with seven hundred of their men, fourteen hundred more being wounded and five hundred taken prisoners. Jackson lost but eight killed and fourteen wounded. Ten days later the enemy withdrew, leaving many of their guns behind them. The full glory of Jackson's triumph at New Orleans partisan rancor subsequently sought to dim. But high military authorities, even in England, have sustained the popular judgment that it was a brilliant victory, achieved by rare foresight, wise conduct, and undoubted warlike genius. Jackson's success at New Orleans gave him immense popularity. He received a vote of thanks from Congress, was made Commander-in- chief of the southern division of the army, and even began to be talked of as a candidate for the Presidency. President Monroe offered him the post of Secretary of War. In the Seminole War, which commenced about the close of 1817, he took the field in person. He was successful, with but little fighting. His execution of Arbuth- not and Armbruster, two British subjects, found guilty by a military court of inciting the Indians to hostilities, caused an angry discussion between England and the United States which at one time threatened to end in open rupture. In Congress, also, it excited a warm debate ; but resolutions censuring the General were rejected by the OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. House, and came to no conclusion in the Senate. When Spain ceded Florida to the Union, Jack- son was appointed Governor of the Territory. In 1823 he was elected to the United States Sen- ate by the Legislature of Tennessee, which, at the same time, nominated him for the Presidency. This nomination, though ridiculed on account of Jackson's alleged unfitness for the office, never- theless resulted, at the ensuing election, in his receiving more votes than any other single can- didate ; but the choice devolving on the House of Representatives, Adams, as we have seen, was elected. For Henry Clay's part in this success of Adams, Jackson became his bitter enemy, stigma- tizing him as the "Judas of the West." In the next campaign, however, Jackson achieved a de- cided triumph, having a majority of eighty-three out of two hundred and sixty-one electoral votes. In retaliation for the bitter personal attacks he had received during the campaign, Jackson com- menced a wholesale political proscription of his partisan opponents. Adopting the war-cry of his Secretary of State, Marcy, of New York, that "to the victors belong the spoils," he initiated that system, ever since so prevalent, of turning out of office every man not on the side of the winning party. His veto of the bill re-chartering the United States Bank, which for a time caused quite a panic in commercial circles, and his determined ANDRE W JA CKSON. , ^ j stand against the " nullifiers," under the lead of Calhoun, who, with threats of armed resistance, demanded a reduction of the tariff, excited a warm opposition to the President. But, in spite of every effort, the election of 1828 brought him again into the Presidential chair with an over- whelming majority, he receiving two hundred and nineteen electoral votes out of two hundred and eighty-eight, which was then the total number. On the loth of December, 1832, Jackson was compelled by the conduct of South Carolina to issue a proclamation threatening to use the army in case of resistance to the execution of the tariff laws ; but, fortunately, Mr. Clay succeeded in bringing about a compromise, by which, the tariff being modified, the South Carolinians were ena- bled to recede from their position with becoming dignity. Jackson's removal of the deposits, in 1833, caused an intense excitement throughout the country. In Congress, his course was censured by the Senate, but approved by the House. A panic existed for some time in business circles ; but before the close of his second term the great mass of the people were content with the Presi- dent's course. Jackson's foreign diplomacy had been very successful. Useful commercial treaties were made with several countries and renewed with others. Indemnities for spoliations on American 432 OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. commerce were obtained from various foreign countries. The national debt was extinguished, the Cherokees were removed from Georgia and the Creeks from Florida, while the original num- ber of the States was doubled by the admission into the Union of Arkansas, in 1836, and of Michigan, in 1837. On the other hand, the slavery dispute was renewed with much bitterness, and the Seminole War re-commenced. On the 4th of March, 1837, Jackson retired from public life. He returned to " the Hermit- age," his country seat, where he remained until his death, on the 8th of June, 1845. The imme- diate cause of his death was dropsy ; but through the greater part of his life he had been a sufferer from disease in one form or another. General Jackson has been described as a man of unbounded hospitality. He loved fine horses and had a passion for racing them. " His temper," writes Colonel Benton, "was placable as well as irascible, and his reconciliations were cordial and sincere." He abhorred debt, public as well as private. His love of country was a master pas- sion. " He was a thoroughly honest man, as straightforward in action as his thoughts were unsophisticated." Of book-knowledge he pos- sessed little scarcely anything; but his vigorous native intelligence and intuitive judgment carried him safely through where the most profound learning without them would have failed. MARTIN VAN BUREN. **~ MARTIN VAN BUREN, THE eighth chief executive of the Union, was the son of a thrifty farmer in the old town of Kinderhook, in Columbia County, New York, where he was born on the 5th of December, 1782. Early evidencing unusual mental vigor, a good academic education was given to him. Finishing this at the age of four- teen, he then began the study of the law. After seven years of study he was admitted to the bar, and commenced to practice in his native village. His growing reputation and practice warranting him in seeking a wider field, in 1809 he removed to Hudson. In 1812, he was elected to the Sen- ate of New York ; and, in 1815, having been appointed Attorney-General of the State, he re- moved to Albany. In 1821, he was elected to the United States Senate, and was also a member of the Convention to revise the Constitution of New York. He speedily rose to distinction in the National Senate, and, in 1827, was re-elected to that body, but the year following resigned his seat to take the position of Governor of New York. In 1829, General Jackson, whose election to the Presidencv was no doubt due in a qreat mea- " O sure to the shrewd political management of Van Buren, offered him the post of Secretary of State. OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. In 1831, circumstances making it necessary for Jackson to re-organize his Cabinet, Van Buren resigned his Secretaryship, but was immediately named Minister to England. The Senate, how- ever, greatly to the President's dissatisfaction, refused to confirm the nomination, though Van Buren had already reached London. This rejec- tion of his friend aroused all of Jackson's deter- mined spirit. He not only succeeded in placing Mr. Van Buren in the Vice-Presidency during his own second term, but he also began to work zeal- ously to obtain Van Buren's nomination as his successor in the Presidency. He triumphed, and his friend received the Democratic nomination, and was elected by a handsome majority, taking his seat in the Presidential chair on the 4th of March, 1837. Shortly after Van Buren's inauguration, a finan- cial panic, ascribed to General Jackson's desire to make specie the currency of the country, and his consequent war upon the banks, brought the country to the very verge of ruin. Failures came fast and frequent, and all the great indus- tries of the nation were paralyzed. At the same time, the war in Florida against the Seminoles lin- gered along, without the slightest apparent pros- pect of coming to an end, entailing enormous expenses on the Government; while the anti- slavery agitation, growing steadily stronger, ex- cited mobs and violence, and threatened to shake MAR TIN VAN BUR EN. , -, r the Republic from its foundations. Rightly or wrongly, these troubles were attributed to Presi- dent Van Buren and his party, as resulting from the policy they had pursued. His popularity waned rapidly, and at the Presidential election in 1840, in which he was a candidate for re-election, he was overwhelmingly defeated. Retiring to Lindenwald, his fine estate near Kinderhook, Van Buren, in 1844, endeavored to procure a re-nomination for the Presidency, but was unsuccessful, though a majority of delegates was pledged to support him. His defeat was due to the opposition of Southern members, based on the fact that he had written a letter adverse to the annexation of Texas. In 1848, he was brought forward by the Free-soil Democrats. Though not elected, the party which had nominated him showed unexpected strength, nearly three hundred thousand votes having been cast in his favor. Mr. Van Buren now retired from public life. Fourteen years later, at the age of eighty, on the 24th of July, 1862, he died at Lindenwald. He was a man of more than ordinary ability, of culti- vated manners, and genial disposition. Though shrewd, he was not a dishonest politician. His private character was beyond reproach. He de- serves a conspicuous position among those who have been worthy successors of our immortal first President. 436 OUK FOK.MEK PRESIDENTS. WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, ninth President of the United States, was born at Berkeley, on the banks of the James River, in Virginia, on the 9th of February, 1773. His father, Benjamin Harrison, was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and for several years Governor of Virginia. Hav- ing received a good education at Hampden-Sid- ney College, young Harrison began the study of medicine; but the barbarities of the savages on our northwestern frontier having excited his sympathies in behalf of the suffering settlers, he determined to enter the army, as being a place where he could do good service. Accordingly, in 1791, shortly after St. Clair's defeat, he obtained from President Washington a commission as en- o sign in the artillery. Though winter was coming on, he at once set out on foot across the wilder- ness to Pittsburg, whence he descended the Ohio to Fort Washington, now Cincinnati. He soon O became a favorite with his superiors, and by his bravery in battle speedily attained the rank of captain. In 1 797, when but twenty-four years old, having recently married, he resigned his commis- sion, to accept the secretaryship of the Northwest Territory. In 1801, he was appointed Governor of " the Indiana Territory," comprising the present WILLIAM HENR Y HARRISON. ,<,* States of Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin. This office he filled satisfactorily to both whites and Indians for twelve years, during which time he negotiated many excellent treaties. During the summer of 181 1, the Indians of the Northwest, under the lead of the celebrated Te- cumseh, and instigated, it is thought, by the emis- saries of England, with whom we were upon the point of going to war, broke out into open hos- tility. Collecting a considerable force of militia and volunteers, Harrison took the field. On the 7th of November, he encountered and defeated Tecumseh on the banks of the Tippecanoe River. This was one of the most hotly contested battles ever fought between the Indians and the whites. O Its victorious results added greatly to Harrison's already high reputation; and in 1812, after Hull's ignominious surrender of Detroit, he was ap- pointed commander-in-chief of the Army of the Northwest. Invested with almost absolute power, he displayed an energy, sagacity, and courage which justified the confidence reposed in him. By almost superhuman exertions, he managed to collect an army. Perry, on the loth of Septem- ber, 1813, having defeated the British fleet on Lake Erie, Harrison, who had been waiting the course of events, now hastened to take the field. Crossing into Canada, he repossessed Detroit, and, pushing on in pursuit of the flying enemy, finally brought them to a stand on the banks of 438 OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. the Thames. Here, after a brief but sanguinary contest, the British and their savage allies were defeated with heavy loss. Tecumseh, the leading spirit of the Indians, was left dead on the field. Harrison's triumph was complete and decisive. Shortly after this victory, which gave peace to the Northwest, Harrison, having had some diffi- culty with the Secretary of War, threw up his commission, but was appointed by the President to negotiate a treaty with the Indians. In 1816, he was elected to the lower house of Congress, where he gained considerable reputation, both as an active working member and as an eloquent and effective speaker. In 1824, he was sent from Ohio to the United States Senate. In 1828, he was appointed by John Ouincy Adams Minister to the Republic of Colombia ; but President Jack- son, who bore him no good-will, the following year recalled him. On his return home, he retired to his farm at North Bend, on the Ohio River, and was presently elected clerk of the Hamilton County Court. In 1836, he was one of the four candidates who ran against Van Buren for the o Presidency. Jackson's favorite, as we have seen, came out ahead in this race. But, though Harri- son was not elected, there was such evidence of his popularity as to warrant the Whigs in uniting upon him as their candidate in the campaign of 1 840. That campaign was a memorable one. It was, perhaps, the most exciting, yet, at the same time, WILLIAM HENR Y HARRISON. <, g one of the freest from extreme partisan bitterness, of any Presidential canvass ever known. As " the hero of Tippecanoe " and " the log-cabin candidate," which latter phrase was first used in contempt, Harrison swept everything before him, securing two hundred and thirty-four out of the two hundred and ninety-four electoral votes cast, and this, too, in spite of all the efforts of Jackson to prevent his success. His journey to be inau- gurated was one continued ovation. His inauq-u- o o ration, which took place on the 4th of March, 1841, was witnessed by a vast concourse of peo- ple from all parts of the Union. His address, by the moderation of its tone, and by its plain, prac- tical, common-sense views, confirmed his immense popularity. Selecting for his Cabinet some of the most eminent public men of the country, he began his Administration with the brightest pros- pects. But, in the midst of these pleasing antici- pations, he was suddenly attacked by a fit of sickness, which, in a few days terminated in his death, on the 4th of April, just one month after his inauguration. His last words, spoken in the delirium of fever, were characteristic of the con- scientiousness with which he had accepted the responsibilities of the Presidential office. " Sir," he said, as if, conscious of his approaching end, he were addressing his successor, " I wish you to understand the principles of the Government. I wish them carried out. I ask nothing more." 44-O OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. The sudden and unexpected death of President Harrison threw the whole country into mourning. Much had been hoped from him, as one who had the best interests of every portion of the Union at heart. There was a noble simplicity in his character which had won all hearts. Without being brilliant, his was an intellect of solid, sub- stantial worth. He was a frank, guileless-hearted man, of incorruptible integrity, and stands forth among our Presidents, brief as was his official term, as a noble representative of the plain, prac- tical, honest yeomanry of the land. " Not one single spot," says Abbott, " can be found to sully the brightness of his fame ; and through all the ages, Americans will pronounce with love and reverence the name of William Henry Harrison." JOHN TYLER. ON the death of General Harrison, April 4th, 1841, for the first time in our history the administration of the Government de- volved on the Vice-President. The gentleman thus elevated to the Presidency was John Tyler, the son of a wealthy landholder of Virginia, at one time Governor of that State. Born in Charles City County, March 29th, 1790, young Tyler, at the age of seventeen, graduated from William and Mary College with the reputation of JOHX TYLER. having delivered the best commencement oration ever heard by the faculty. When only nineteen he began to practice law, rising to eminence in his profession with surprising rapidity. Two years later he was elected to the Legislature. After serving five successive terms in the Legis- lature, he was, in 1816, in 1817, and again in 1819, elected to Congress. Compelled by ill- health to resign his seat in Congress, he was, in 1825, chosen Governor of the State. In 1827, he was elected to the United States Senate over the celebrated John Randolph, of Roanoke. During the whole of his Congressional career, Mr. Tyler was an earnest advocate of the strict construction doctrines of the then Democratic party, opposing the United States Bank, a protec- tive tariff, internal improvements by the General Government, and, in short, all measures tending to the centralization of power. He was also an ardent opponent of any restrictions upon slavery, and avowed his sympathies with the nullification theories of Calhoun. On this last subject he finally came into the opposition against Jackson. In the session of i833-'34, he voted for Clay's resolutions censuring Jackson for his removal of the deposits. In 1836, when the Virginia Legis- lature instructed its representatives in Congress to vote for the rescinding of these resolutions, Mr. Tyler, who had early committed himself to the right of instruction, could not conscientiously A . 2 OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. comply with the request of the Legislature, nor hold his seat in disregard of its mandate, and ac- cordingly resigned. In 1838, he was again sent to the Legislature, and, in 1839, we find him a delegate to the Whig National Convention, which, at Harrisburg, nominated Harrison and himself as candidates for President and Vice- President. Of the campaign which followed, and of the subsequent death of Harrison, we have already given an account. On receiving tidings of the President's death, Mr. Tyler hastened to Washington, and, on the 6th of April, was inaugurated, and he retained all the Cabinet officers Harrison had appointed. Three days later, he issued an inaugural address, which was well received, both by the public and by his partisan friends, who, knowing his antece- dents, had been somewhat dubious as to what policy he would pursue. But this was only the calm before the storm. Tyler's veto of the bill for a "fiscal bank of the United States," led to a complete rupture with the party by which he had been elected, who charged him with treachery to his principles. Attempting conciliation, he only displeased the Democrats, who had at first shown a disposition to stand by him, without regaining the favor of the Whigs. In consequence of this course of action, Tyler's Cabinet all resigned, and in their places several Democrats were ap- pointed. JOHN TYLER. *. During his Administration several very impor- tant measures were adopted. Among them the act establishing a uniform system of bankruptcy, passed in 1841, the tariff law of 1842, and the scheme for the annexation of Texas, which, by the vigorous efforts of the President, was brought to a successful issue by the passage of joint resolu- tions in Congress, on the ist of March, 1845, just three days before the close of his term. The formal act of annexation, however, was not passed until a later period. One new State Florida was also admitted into the Union under Mr. Tyler's Administration, in 1845. After his retirement from the Presidency, on the 4th of March, 1845, Mr. Tyler remained in private life at his beautiful home of Sherwood Forest, in Charles City County, till, in 1861, he appeared as a member of the Peace Convention, composed of delegates from the " Border States," which met at Washington to endeavor to arrange terms of compromise between the seceded States and the General Government. Of this Conven- tion, which accomplished nothing, he was presi- dent. Subsequently, Mr. Tyler renounced his alle- giance to the United States, and was chosen a member of the Confederate Congress. While acting in this capacity he was taken sick at Rich- mond, where he died after a brief illness, on the 1 7th of January, 1862. 444 OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. JAMES KNOX POLK. MECKLENBURG County, North Caro- lina, has the distinction of being the birthplace of two Presidents of the United States Andrew Jackson and James Knox Polk the latter of whom was born there on the 2d of November, 1795. Like his friend and neighbor, General Jackson, Mr. Polk was of Scotch-Irish descent. It was his great-uncle, Col- onel Thomas Polk, who, on the igth of May, 1775, read from the steps of the court-house, at Char- lotte, that famous "Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence," to which reference has been made in our sketch of Jefferson. James at a very early age manifested decided literary tastes. After a vain attempt to induce him to become a store- keeper, his father finally consented to his enter- ing the University of North Carolina, at Chapel Hill, from which, in his twenty-third year, he grad- uated with the highest honors. Studying law at Nashville, Tennessee, where he renewed a former acquaintance with General Jackson, he was ad- mitted to the bar, and commenced practice at Columbia. In 1823, he was elected to the Legislature of Tennessee, and during the following year was married to Miss Sarah Childress, a beautiful and accomplished young lady, of refined manners and JAMES KNOX POLK. .** rare social gifts. In the fall of 1825, he was elected to Congress, where he remained the next o fourteen years, during five sessions occupying the responsible and honorable position of Speaker of the House, the duties of which he performed with a dignity and dispassionateness which won for him the warmest encomiums from all parties. In 1839, he was chosen Governor of Tennessee. Again a candidate in 1841, and also in 1843, he was both times defeated, a result due to one of those periodical revolutions in politics which seem in- separable from republican forms of government, rather than to Mr. Folk's lack of personal popu- larity. As the avowed friend of the annexation of Texas, Mr. Polk, in 1844, was nominated by the Democrats for the Presidency. Though he had for his opponent no less a person than the great and popular orator and statesman, Henry Clay, he received one hundred and seventy out of two hun- dred and seventy-five votes in the electoral col- lege. He was inaugurated on the 4th of March, 1845. Three days previously, his predecessor, John Tyler, had signed the joint resolutions of Congress favoring the annexation of Texas to the United States. Consequently, at the very begin- ning of his Administration, Mr. Polk found the country involved in disputes with Mexico, which, on the formal annexation of Texas, in December, 1845, threatened to result in hostilities between 446 OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. the two countries. General Zachary Taylor was sent with a small army to occupy the territory stretching from the Neuces to the Rio Grande, which latter stream Texas claimed as her western boundary. Mexico, on the other hand, declaring that Texas had never extended further west than the Neuces, dispatched a force to watch Taylor. A slight collision, in April, 1846, was followed, a few days later, by the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, in which General Taylor was victorious. When the tidings of these battles reached Washington, the President, on May 1 1 th, sent a special message to Congress, declaring " that war existed by the act of Mexico," and ask- ing for men and money to carry it on. Congress promptly voted ten million dollars, and authorizec) the President to call out fifty thousand volun- teers. Hostilities were prosecuted vigorously. An American army, under General Scott, finally fought its way to the capture of the City of Mexico. On the 2d of February, 1848, the treaty of Guada- loupe Hidalgo was signed, and ratified by the Senate on the loth of March following, by which New Mexico and Upper California, comprising a territory of more than half a million square miles, were added to the United States. In return, the United States agreed to pay Mexico fifteen mil- lion of dollars, and to assume the debts due by Mexico to citizens of the United States, amount- ing to three and a half millions more. JAMES KNOX POLK. Besides Texas, two other States were admitted into the Union during Mr. Folk's Administration. These were Iowa and Wisconsin the former in 1846 and the latter in 1848. When the war with Mexico first broke out, negotiations were pending between England and the United States, in regard to Oregon, which we had long deemed a portion of our own territory. " Fifty-four forty [54 40'] or fight !" had been one of the Democratic battle-cries during the canvass which resulted in Mr. Folk's election, and he, in his inaugural, had maintained that our title to Oregon was unquestionable. England, however, still urged her claim to the whole country. After considerable negotiation, the President finally, as an amicable compromise, offered the boundary of the parallel of 49, giving Vancouver's Island to Great Britain. His offer was accepted, and war perhaps avoided. Another important measure of Mr. Folk's Administration was a modification of the tariff, in 1-846, by which its former protective features were much lessened. On hi-s nomination, in 1 844, Mr. Polk had pledged himself to the one-term principle. Consequently he was not a candidate for re-election in 1848. Having witnessed the inauguration of his suc- cessor, General Taylor, he returned to his home near Nashville. " He was then," says Abbott, but fifty-four years of age. He had ever been strictly temperate in his habits, and his health was 448 OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. good. With an ample fortune, a choice library, a cultivated mind, and domestic ties of the dearest nature, it seemed as though long years of tran- quillity and happiness were before him." But it was not so to be. On his way home he felt pre- monitory symptoms of cholera, and when he reached there his system was much weakened. Though at first able to work a little in superin- tending the fitting up of his grounds, he was soon compelled to take to his bed. He never rose from it again. Though finally the disease was checked, he had not strength left to brin^ on the o o necessary reaction. " He died without a struggle, simply ceasing to breathe, as when deep and quiet sleep falls upon a weary man," on the i5th of June, 1849, a little more than three months after his retirement from the Presidency. His remains lie in the spacious lawn of his former home, where his widow still lives (1884). ZACHARY TAYLOR, TWELFTH President of the United States, was born in Orange County, Virginia, No- vember 24th, 1 784. His father, Colonel Rich- ard Taylor, was a noted Revolutionary officer. His mother, as is usually the case with the moth- ers of men who have risen to distinction, was a woman of great force of character. Whilst he THE FAMOUS EAST ROOM OF THE WHITE HOUSE. THE WHITE HOUSE HOME OF THE PRESIDENTS. ZA CHAR Y TA YL OR. * - j was yet an infant, his parents removed to the then wilderness near the present city of Louisville. Here in the depths of the forest swarming with hostile savages, young Taylor found few educa- tional advantages, though the training he received was no doubt one to develop those military qual- ities he subsequently displayed. He grew up a rugged, brave, self-reliant youth, with more of a certain frank, almost blunt, off-handedness, than exterior polish. In 1808, he received a lieutenant's commission in the army, and in 1810 married Margaret Smith. His military career fairly opened in 1812, when he was sent to the defense of our western border. While in command of Fort Harrison, on the Wabash, with a garrison of but fifty-two men, he was suddenly attacked by a band of Indians, who succeeded in setting fire to the fort. But the young captain with his handful of men extinguished the flames, and forced the enemy to retreat. For this gallant exploit, he received a brevet major's commission. Nothinor remarkable occurred in his life for o many years subsequent, until, in 1837, we ^ n< ^ him a colonel in Florida, operating against the Seminoles. On Christmas Day of that year he won the battle of Okechobee, one of the most fiercely contested actions in the annals of Indian warfare. The Seminoles never rallied again in formidable numbers. For his signal services in OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. this affair Taylor was made a brigadier, and ap- pointed Commander-in-chief. This post he retained till 1840, when, having purchased an estate near Baton Rouge, in Louisiana, he was, at his own request, placed in the command of the Department of the Southwest. While still holding this command in the spring of 1845, Congress having passed joint resolutions for the annexation of Texas, General Taylor was sent with four thousand troops to Corpus Christi, on the west bank of the Neuces, and in territory claimed by both Mexico and Texas. It has been said that it was the secret object of our Govern- ment to provoke a conflict with Mexico, yet so that the responsibility of it should appear to rest upon General Taylor. If such was the object, the scheme signally failed. Taylor made no move without explicit orders. It was by the President's positive command that, on the 8th of March, 1846, the wary old General began his march into the disputed district lying between the Neuces and the Rio Grande. Reaching the latter stream on o the 28th, he built Fort Brown immediately oppo- site the Mexican town of Matamoras. On the 1 2th of March the Mexican commander peremp- torily ordered Taylor to retire beyond the Neuces. A refusal to do this, he said, would be regarded as a declaration of war. General Taylor replied that his instructions would not permit him to retire, and that if the Mexicans saw fit to com- ZA CHAR Y TA YL OR. , r ., mence hostilities he would not shrink from the conflict. Six thousand Mexicans at once crossed the Rio Grande. With less than three thousand troops, Taylor, on the 8th of April, attacked and defeated them at Palo Alto. Rallying in a strong position at Resaca de la Palma, the Mexicans were again attacked, and after a stubborn fight driven back across the river with great loss. These victories were hailed with the wildest enthusiasm throughout the country, and Taylor was promoted to a major-generalship. Moving rapidly forward to Monterey, he took that strongly fortified city, after a desperate fight of three days. Making it his headquarters, the victor was preparing for an important move, when General Scott, who was about to lead an expedi- tion against Vera Cruz, took away the best part of his troops, leaving him with only five thousand men, mostly raw volunteers. Hearing of this, Santa Anna, undoubtedly the ablest of the Mexican generals, with twenty thousand picked men, pushed rapidly down the Rio Grande with the design of overpowering Taylor's little army. The latter, on the 2ist of February, 1847, took position at Buena Vista and awaited the approach of his antagonist, who made his appearance the following day, and at once began a fierce attack. Never was battle fought with more desperate courage or greater skill. Three times during the day victory seemed with the Mexicans ; but finally the OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. stubborn valor of Taylor's little band won the field. The tidings of this brilliant victory excited the greatest enthusiasm and gained an imperishable renown for the triumphant General. On his re- turn home in November, " Old Rough and Ready," as his soldiers familiarly called him, was greeted everywhere by the warmest demonstrations of popular applause. Even before this he had been nominated at public meetings for the Presidency ; and now the Whigs, casting about for a popular candidate, made him their party nominee. Not- withstanding the defection from their ranks of o Henry Wilson and others, who were opposed to Taylor as being a slave-holder, he was elected by a respectable majority, receiving one hundred and sixty-three electoral votes. His inauguration took place on Monday, March 5th, 1849. Though he selected an excellent Cabinet, the old soldier found himself in a trying position. A vehement struggle had commenced in Congress about the organization of the new Territories, the admission of California, and the settlement of the boundary between Texas and New Mexico, all these questions being connected with the great and absorbing one of the extension or non-ex- tension of slavery. Taylor, in his message to Congress, recommended the admission of Cali- fornia as a free State, and that the remaining Territories should be allowed to form State Con- MILLARD FILLMORE. . stitutions to suit themselves. Nothing could have been more distasteful to the extremists of the South, many of whom made open threats of seces- sion in case of the adoption of the President's suggestions. To adjust the difficulty, Mr. Clay, in the Senate, introduced his " compromise mea- sures," which were still under debate, when, on the 4th of July, 1850, General Taylor was seized with bilious fever, of which he died on the 9th at the Presidential Mansion. His last words were : " I have tried to do my duty." MILLARD FILLMORE. ON the death of General Taylor, his suc- cessor, according to the Constitution, was the Vice-President. The gentleman then filling that position was Millard Fillmore, an emi- nent lawyer of New York. He was compara- tively a young man, having been born on the yth of January, 1800, at Summer Hill, Cayuga County, New York. His father being poor, his means of education had been limited. Apprenticed at the age of fourteen to a clothier, he found time during his evenings to gratify an insatiable thirst for knowledge by reading. His studious habits, fine personal appearance, and gentlemanly bearing having attracted the attention of a lawyer in the neighborhood, that gentleman offered to receive 4-5 OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. him in his office and to assist him pecuniarily until he should be admitted to the bar. This offer young Fillmore, then in his nineteenth year, thank- fully accepted. With this help, and by teaching during the winters, he was enabled to prosecute his studies to a successful issue, and in 1823 was admitted to the bar, opening an office in the vil- lage of Aurora, New York. In 1826, he married Miss Abigail Powers, a lady of eminent worth. Mr. Fillmore steadily rose in his profession. In 1829, he was elected by the Whigs to the State Legislature, and soon afterward removed to Buf- falo. In 1832, he was chosen a member of Con- gress, and again in 1837, DUt declined running a third time. He now had a wide reputation, and in the year 1847 was elected State Comptroller and removed to Albany. The following year, he was placed in nomination as Vice -President on the ticket with General Taylor. When, on the 5th of March, 1849, Taylor took the Presidential chair, Mr. Fillmore, by virtue of his office, became President of the United States Senate. Here, the first presiding officer to take so firm a step, he announced his determination, in spite of all prece- dents to the contrary, to promptly call Senators to order for any offensive words they might utter in debate. When, after the unexpected death of General Taylor, on July gth, 1850, the office of chief ex- ecutive devolved upon Mr. Fillmore, he found M1LLARD F1LLMORE. r~ his position no easy or pleasant one. His political opponents had a majority in both houses of Con- gress. The controversy on the slavery question had embittered public feeling, and it required a skillful pilot to guide the ship of state safely through the perils by which she was surrounded. The com- promise measures of Mr. Clay, to which we have already referred in our sketch of General Taylor, were finally passed, and received the approving signature of Mr. Fillmore. One of these meas- o ures was the admission of California as a free State ; another was the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. These were thought to be concessions to the cause of freedom ; while, on the other hand, to satisfy the pro-slavery agitators, a bill was passed to give the owners of slaves power to recapture fugitive slaves in any part of the free States and carry them back without a jury trial. But, though enacted in the hope of allay- ing sectional animosity, these measures brought about only a temporary calm, while they aggra- vated the violence of extremists both North and South. The compromise measures and the fitting out of the famous Japan expedition were the principal features of Mr. Fillmore's otherwise uneventful Administration. On the 4th of March, 1853, he retired from office, and immediately afterward took a long tour through the Southern States, where he met with a cordial reception. A rg OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. In 1855, Mr. Fillmore visited Europe. He was everywhere received with those marks of atten- tion which, according to European ideas, are due to those who have occupied the most distinguished positions. On his return home, in 1856, he was nominated for the Presidency by the so-called "Know-nothing," or "American" party; but being very decidedly defeated, he retired to private life. He died at Buffalo, New York, on the 8th of March, [874. FRANKLIN PIERCE, FOURTEENTH President of the United States, was born at Hillsborough, N. H., November 23d, 1804. His father, General Benjamin Pierce, was a soldier of the Revolution, and was a man of considerable local repute, hav- ing also served as Governor of New Hampshire. Graduating from Bowdoin College in 1824, Mr. Pierce studied law with the celebrated Levi Woodbury, and commenced practice in his native town in 1837. He married in 1834. He early entered the political field and, in 1833, after hav- ing previously served several terms in the State Legislature, was elected to Congress. Here he showed himself an earnest State-rights Democrat, and was regarded as a fair working member. In 1837, when but thirty-three years of age, he was FRANKLIN PIERCE. elected to the National Senate and, during the following year, removed to Concord, where he at once took rank among the leading lawyers of the . State. Though Mr. Pierce had declined the office of Attorney-General of the United States, offered to him by President Polk, he, nevertheless, when hostilities were declared against Mexico, accepted a brigadier-generalship in the army, successfully marching with twenty-four hundred men from the sea-coast to Puebla, where he reinforced General Scott. The latter, on the arrival of Pierce, imme- diately prepared to make his long-contemplated attack upon the City of Mexico. At the battle of Contreras, on the igth of August, 1847, where he led an assaulting column four thousand strong, General Pierce showed himself to be a brave and energetic soldier. Early in the fight his leg was broken by his horse falling upon him, yet he kept his saddle during the entire conflict, which did not cease till eleven o'clock at night. The next day also, he took part in the still more desperate fight at Churubusco, where, overcome by pain and exhaustion, he fainted on the field. At Molino Del Rey, where the hottest battle of the war was fought, he narrowly escaped death from a shell which bursted beneath his horse. The American army triumphantly entered the City of Mexico on the I3th of September, 1847. General Pierce remained there until the following 460 OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. December, when he returned home and resumed the practice of his profession. In the Democratic Convention which met at Baltimore, June ist, 1852, Cass, Buchanan, and. Douglas were the prominent candidates. After thirty-five indecisive ballots Franklin Pierce was proposed, and on the forty-ninth ballot he was nominated for the Presi- dency. He was elected by an overwhelming majority, and was inaugurated Chief Magistrate on the 4th of March, 1853, receiving two hundred and fifty-four electoral votes, while his opponent, General Winfield Scott, received but forty-two. Though both the great parties of the country had adopted platforms favoring the recent com- promise measures of Clay, and deprecating any renewal of the agitation of the slavery question, General Pierce's Administration, by reason of the bringing up of that very question, was one of the most stormy in our history. Douglas's bill for the organization of Kansas and Nebraska, by which the Missouri Compromise Act of 1 8 20 was repealed allowing slavery to enter where it had been for- ever excluded, and which, having the support of the President, became a law on the last day of May, 1853, excited the most intense indignation in the free States, and greatly increased the strength of the anti-slavery power. In Kansas a bitter contest, almost attaining the proportions of civil war, began between the partisans of the South and the North. This contest was FRANKLIN PIERCE. still raging when Mr. Pierce's term drew to its close. Other events of his Administration were the bombardment of Greytown, in Central America, under orders from our Government ; efforts under Government direction for the acquisition of Cuba ; and the use of the President's official influence and patronage against the Anti-Slavery settlers of Kansas. His friends sought to obtain his nomination for a second term, but did not succeed. On the 4th of March, 1857, therefore, he retired to his home at Concord. That home, already bereaved by the loss of three promising boys his only children, was now to have a still greater loss, that of the wife and afflicted mother, who, grief-stricken at the sudden death, by a railroad accident, of her last boy, sunk under consumption, leaving Mr. Pierce alone in the world wifeless as well as childless. The sorrowing- ex-President soon after took a O trip to Madeira, and made a protracted tour in Europe, returning home in 1860. During the Civil War he delivered in Concord a speech, still known as the " Mausoleum of Hearts Speech," in which he is regarded as having expressed a decided sympathy for the Confederates. He died at Concord on the 8th of October, 1869, having lost much of his hold on the respect of his fellow- citizens, both North and South, by his lack of decision for either. 462 OUR fORMER PRESIDENTS. JAMES BUCHANAN, FIFTEENTH President of the United States, was born in Franklin County, Pa., April 22d, 1791. His father, a native of the North of Ireland, who had come eight years before to America, with no capital but his strong arms and energetic spirit, was yet able to give the bright and studious boy a good collegiate educa- tion at Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa., where he graduated in 1809. He then began the study of law at Lancaster, and, after a three years' course, was admitted to practice in 1812. He rose rap- idly in his profession, the business of which in- creased with his reputation, so that, at the age of forty, he was enabled to retire with an ample fortune. Mr. Buchanan early entered into politics. When but twenty-three years old, he was elected to the Legislature of Pennsylvania. Though an avowed Federalist, he not only spoke in favor of a vigorous prosecution of the War of 1812, but likewise marched as a private soldier to the de- fense of Baltimore. In 1820, he was elected to the lower House of Congress, where he speedily attained eminence as a finished and energetic o speaker. His political views are shown in the following extract from one of his speeches in Congress : " If I know myself, I am a politician JAMES B UCHANAN. neither of the West nor the East, of the North nor of the South. I therefore shall forever avoid any expressions the direct tendency of which must be to create sectional jealousies, and at length dis- union that worst of all political calamities." That he sincerely endeavored in his future career to act in accordance with the principles here enunciated no candid mind can doubt, however much he may be regarded to have failed in doing so, especially during the eventful last months of his Administration. In 1831, at the close of his fifth term, Mr. Bu- chanan, having declined a re-election to Congress, was sent as Minister Plenipotentiary to St. Peters- burg, where he concluded the first commercial treaty between the United States and Russia. On his return home in 1833, ne was elected to the National Senate. Here he became one of the leading spirits among the supporters of Presi- dent Jackson, and also supported the Administra- tion of Martin Van Buren. He was re-elected to the Senate, and his last act as a Senator was to report favorably on the admission of Texas, he being the only member of the Committee on Foreign Relations to do so. On the election of Polk to the Presidency, in 1845, Mr.' Buchanan was selected to fill the im- portant position of Secretary of State. He strongly opposed the " Wilmot Proviso," and all other provisions for the restriction of slavery. 464 OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. At the close of Folk's term, he withdrew to private life, but was subsequently sent by President Pierce as our Minister to England. It was while acting in this capacity that he united with Mason and Soule in the once celebrated " Ostend Mani- festo," in which strong ground was taken in favor of the annexation of Cuba to the United States, by purchase, if possible, but if necessary, by force. Returning home in 1856, he was nominated as the Democratic candidate for the Presidency, and, after a stormy campaign, elected, receiving one hundred and seventy-four out of three hun- dred and three electoral votes. His opponents were John C. Fremont, Republican, and Millard Fillmore, American. He was inaugurated on the 4th of March, 1857. With the exception of a slight difficulty with the Mormons in Utah, and of the admission into the Union of Minnesota in 1858, and of Oregon in 1859, the chief interest of Mr. Buchanan's Administration centered around the slavery controversy. At the time of his inauguration, it is true, the country looked confidently forward to a period of political quiet. But, unhappily, the Kansas diffi- culty had not been settled. The Free-State party in that territory refused obedience to the laws passed by the local Legislature, on the grounds that that Legislature had been elected by fraudu- lent means. They even chose a rival Legislature, which, however, the President refused to recog- JAMES B UCHANA N. nize. Meanwhile the so-called regular Legislature, which Congress had sanctioned, passed a bill for the election of delegates by the people to frame a State Constitution for Kansas. An election was accordingly held; the Convention met, and after a stormy and protracted session, completed its work. The Lecompton Constitution, as it was called, when laid before Congress, met with strong opposition from the Republicans, on the ground that it had been fraudulently concocted. The President, how- ever, gave it all his influence, believing that it would bring peace to the country, while not pre- venting Kansas from being a free State, should its people so desire; and finally, after a struggle of extraordinary violence and duration, it received the sanction of Congress. But quiet was not restored. In the North, the feeling against the President and his party be-. came intense. The election in 1860 resulted in the triumph of Abraham Lincoln, the Republican candidate for the Presidency. The period between Lincoln's election and his inauguration was one of peculiar trial to President Buchanan. An at-- tempt to incite a slave insurrection, made at Har* per's Ferry, in 1859, by John Brown, of Kansas, fop which he was hanged by the authorities of Virginia, had created a profound sensation in the South, where it was regarded by many as indicative of the fixed purpose of the North to destroy slavery at all hazards. The election of Lincoln following 466 OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. so soon after this event, added strength to their apprehensions. As soon as the result of the canvass became known, South Carolina seceded from the Union. Mr. Buchanan, apparently re- garding the fears and complaints of the South as not without some just grounds, seems to have endeavored to bring about a peaceful solution of the difficulties before him by attempts at concilia- tion. But however good his intentions may have been, his policy, which has been characterized as weak, vacillating, and cowardly, so signally failed, that when, on the 4th of March, 1861, he retired from the Presidency, he handed over to his suc- cessor an almost hopelessly divided Union, from which seven States had already seceded. Mr. Buchanan also used his influence for the purchase of Cuba as a means of extending slave territory. He permitted the seizure of Southern forts and arsenals, and the removal of muskets from Northern to Southern armories as the seces- sion movements matured, and in his message of December, 1860, he directly cast upon the North the blame of the disrupted Union. Remaining in Washington long enough to wit- ness the installation of Mr. Lincoln, Mr. Buch- anan withdrew to the privacy of Wheatland, his country home, near Lancaster, in Pennsylvania. Here he spent the remainder of his days, taking no prominent part in public affairs. In 1866, he published a volume entitled, Mr. Buchanans ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Administration, in which he explained and de- fended the policy he had pursued while in the Presidential office. He never married. His death occurred at his mansion at Wheatland, on the ist of June, 1868. ABRAHAM LINCOLN, SIXTEENTH President of the Union, was born in Hardin County, Kentucky, on the 1 2th of February, 1809. His parents were extremely poor, and could give him but scant opportunities of education. It is supposed that his ancestors came to this country from England among the original followers of William Penn. About the middle of the last century they lived in Berks County, Pennsylvania, whence one branch of the family moved to Virginia. The subject of this sketch was taught to read and write by his mother, a woman of intelligence far above her humble station. When he was in his eighth year, the family removed to the then wilderness of Spencer County, Indiana, where, in the course of three or four years, the boy Abraham, who was quick and eager to learn, had a chance to acquire the rudiments of the more ordinary branches of such a common-school education as was to be obtained in that rude frontier district; but his mother died when he was about eleven years old, 468 OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. which was to him a sad loss. At the age of nine- teen, he set out in a flat-boat, containing a cargo of considerable value, on a voyage to New Or- leans. While passing down the Mississippi, they were attacked by a thieving band of negroes, but they courageously beat off the robbers, and suc- ceeded in reaching their destination safely. In 1830, Lincoln's father removed to Decatur County, Illinois. Here Abraham assisted in estab- lishing the new home. It was on this occasion that he split the famous rails from which, years after, he received his name of "the rail-splitter." During the severe winter which followed, by his exertions and skill as a hunter, he contributed greatly in keeping the family from starvation. The next two years he passed through as a farm- hand and as a clerk in a country store. In the Black-Hawk War, which broke out in 1832, he served creditably as a volunteer, and on his re- turn home ran for the Legislature, but was de- feated. He next tried store-keeping, but failed ; and then, having learned something of surveying, worked two or three years quite successfully as a surveyor for the Government. In 1834, he was elected to the Legislature, in which he did the ex- tremely unpopular act of recording his name against some pro-slavery legislation of that body. He soon after took up the study of law, being ad- mitted to the bar in 1837, when he removed to Springfield, and began to practice. John T. Stuart ABRAHAM LINCOLN. **, l was his business partner. In 1842, he married Miss Mary Todd, daughter of Robert S. Todd, Esq., of Lexington, Kentucky. He rose rapidly in his profession, to which having served a second term in the Legislature, he devoted himself assidu- ously till 1844, during which year he canvassed the State in behalf of Mr. Clay, the Whig candi- date for the Presidency. In 1847, ne took his seat in the lower house of Congress, where he was the only Whig from the whole State of Illinois. Ser- ving but a single term in Congress, Mr. Lincoln, in 1848, canvassed the State for General Taylor, and the following year was an unsuccessful can- didate for a seat in the United States Senate. He now renewed his devotion to his legal pur- suits, yet still retained a deep interest in national politics. The repeal of the Missouri Compromise, which created a profound sensation throughout the entire North, brought about a complete political revolution in Illinois, and the State went over to the Whigs. In this revolution Mr. Lincoln took a most active part, and gained a wide reputation as an effective stump speaker. In 1856, he was brought prominently before the first Republican National Convention, and came very near being nominated as its'candidate for the Vice-Presidency. In 1858, as Republican candidate for United States Senator, he canvassed Illinois in opposition to Judge Douglas, the Democratic nominee. PRESIDENTS. Douglas was, perhaps, one of the most effective public speakers of the time, yet it is generally conceded that Lincoln, though he failed to obtain the Senatorship, was fully equal to his distin- guished and no doubt more polished opponent. The rare versatility and comprehensiveness of Mr. Lincoln's mind found full illustration in this exciting contest. During the next eighteen months, Mr. Lincoln visited various parts of the country, delivering speeches of marked ability and power ; and when, in May, 1860, the Republican National Conven- tion met at Chicago, he was, on the third ballot, chosen as its candidate for the Presidency. In consequence of a division in the Democratic party, he was elected, receiving one hundred and eighty out of three hundred and three electoral votes. In the popular vote the result was as follows : Lincoln, 1,887, 6m; Douglas, 1,291,574; Brecken- ridge, Pro-slavery Democrat, 880,082 ; Bell, Con- stitutional-Union party, 646,124: thus leaving Lincoln in the minority of the popular vote by nearly a million. The election of Lincoln was at once made a pretext for dissolving the Union. Though he had repeatedly declared his intention not to interfere with the existing institutions of the South, and to hold inviolate his official oath to maintain the Constitution, all was of no avail to dissuade that section from its predetermined purpose. A ABRAHAM LINCOLN. **, month before he was inaugurated six Southern States, having solemnly withdrawn from the Union, met in convention and framed the Consti- tution of a new and independent Confederacy. The President-elect left his home in Springfield on the nth of February, 1861, and proceeded by a somewhat circuitous route to Washington, de- livering short, pithy addresses in the larger towns and cities through which he passed. He also visited the Legislatures of several North- ern States, everywhere reiterating his purpose, while not disturbing the domestic relations of the South, to maintain the Union intact at all hazards. Though informed at Philadelphia that a plot had been formed for his assassination in Baltimore, he reached Washington on Feb- ruary 23d without molestation, and on the 4th of March was duly inaugurated in the presence of an immense assemblage from all parts of the country. In his inaugural address the new President, as- suring the people of the South that he had taken the oath to support the Constitution unreservedly, and that there were no grounds for any fear that " their property," peace, or persons were to be endangered, declared it to be his firm intention to execute the laws, collect duties and imposts, and to hold the public properties in all the States with no bloodshed, however, unless it should be forced upon the national authority. 474 OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. On entering upon the duties of his office, Mr. Lincoln found the condition of affairs far from encouraging. Seven States had already with- drawn from the Union, and others were preparing to follow their example. The credit of the .Gov- ernment was low ; the army and navy not only small and inefficient, but scattered all through our wide domain ; and the greater part of the public arms, through the treachery of certain officials, were in the possession of the seceded States. Still, he was hopeful and buoyant, and believed that the pending difficulties would soon be ad- justed. Even when, on the I4th of April, 1861, the bombardment and capture of Fort Sumter by a Confederate Army roused the North to intense action, though he immediately issued a call for 75,000 volunteers, it was seemingly with but a faint idea that they would be needed. The fact that they were summoned for only three months a period far from long enough for the organization of so large a body of men is of itself sufficient evidence of the delusion under which he was laboring. The battle of Bull Run, on the 2ist of July, 1 86 1, which resulted in the total route of the Government forces, in a great measure dispelled this delusion. The real magnitude of the contest o now began to show itself to Mr. Lincoln. Yet his courage never faltered, nor was he less hope- ful of the final triumph of the Union. Cheerfully ABRAHAM LINCOLN. accepting the burden of cares and responsibilities so suddenly thrown upon him, he put his whole heart in the work before him, and not even the disasters of 1862, that gloomiest year of the war, could for a moment shake his confiding spirit. People were not wanting who found fault with the buoyant temper he displayed at that period ; but his apparent cheeriness was of as much avail as our armies in bringing about the triumph which at last came. Of the struggle which resulted in this triumph we shall give no details, only referring briefly to some of the more important actions of the Presi- dent. The most momentous of these, without doubt, was the Emancipation Proclamation, issued on the 22d of September, 1862, and to take effect on the ist of January, 1863, by which slavery was at once and forever done away with in the United States. In his message to Congress, the Presi- dent thus explains this act: "In giving freedom to the slave we assure freedom to the free, hon- orable alike in what we give and what we pre- serve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last, best hope of earth. * * * The way is plain, peaceful, glorious, just a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud and God must forever bless." In 1864, by a respectable majority in the popu- lar vote and a large one in the electoral college, Mr. Lincoln was re-elected to the Presidency. j7 6 OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. At the period of his second inauguration, the complete triumph of the Federal authority over the seceded States was assured. The last battles of the war had been fought. War had substan- tially ceased. The President was looking forward to the more congenial work of pacification. How he designed to carry out this work we may judge from the following passage in his second inaugu- ral: "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are* in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphans, to do all that may achieve and cherish a just and a lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations." Unfortunately, the kind-hearted Lincoln was not to carry out the work of pacification to which he looked forward with such bright anticipations. But a little more than a month after his second inauguration on the night of the i4th of April, 1865 John Wilkes Booth, one of a small band of desperate conspirators, as insanely foolish as they were wicked, fired a pistol-ball into the brain of the President as he sat in his box at the theatre. The wound proved fatal in a few hours, Mr. Lin- coln never recovering his consciousness. o The excitement which the assassination of the President occasioned was most intense. The whole country was in tears. Nor was this grief BIRTH-PLACE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, ELIZABETHTOWN, KY. ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RESIDENCE AT SPRINGFIELD, ILL. ANDRE W $ OffNSON. *** confined to our own people. England, France, all Europe, and even the far-off countries of China and Japan, joined in the lamentation. Never was man more universally mourned, or more deserv- ing of such widespread sorrow. The funeral honors were grand and imposing. His body, having been embalmed, was taken to his home at Springfield, Illinois, passing through Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Albany, Buf- falo, Cleveland, Chicago, and other large towns and cities. The entire road seemed to be lined with mourners, while in the chief cities the funeral ceremonies were equally solemn and magnificent. ANDREW JOHNSON, THE constitutional successor to President Lincoln, was born in Raleigh, N. C., De- cember 29th, 1808. Prevented by the poverty of his parents from receiving any school- ing, he was apprenticed, at the age of ten, to a tailor. On the expiration of his apprenticeship, he went to Greenville, Tenn., where he married. By his wife he was taught to write and to cipher, having already learned to read. Taking consid- erable interest in local politics, he formed a work- ingman's party in the town, by which he was elected alderman, and afterward Mayor. In 1835, he was elected to a seat in the Legislature. 4$ O OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. Failing of re-election in 1837, he was again suc- cessful in 1839; and in 1841, was elected to the State Senate. His ability was now recognized and, in 1843, he was sent to Congress as a Rep- resentative of the Democratic party. Having served five successive terms in Congress, he was, in 1853, elected Governor of Tennessee, and again in 1855. Two years later, he was called upon to represent Tennessee in the United States Senate, where he speedily rose to distinction as a man of great native energy. The free homestead bill, giving one hundred and sixty acres of the public land to every citizen who would settle upon it and cultivate it a certain number of years, owes its passage to his persistent advocacy. On the slavery question he generally went with the Dem- ocratic party, accepting slavery as an existing institution, protected by the Constitution. In the Presidential canvass of 1860, Mr. John- son was a supporter of Breckinridge, but took strong grounds against secession when that sub- ject came up. His own State having voted itself out of the Union, it was at the peril of his life that he returned home in 1861. Attacked by a mob on a railroad car, he boldly faced his assail- ants, pistol in hand, and they slunk away. On the 4th of March, 1862, he was appointed Military Governor of Tennessee. He entered upon the duties of his office with a courage and vigor that soon entirely reversed the condition of affairs in AXDKE W JOHNSON. ,g j the State. By March, 1864, he had so far restored order that elections were held for State and County officers, and the usual machinery of civil government was once more set in motion. On the 4th of March, 1865, Mr. Johnson was inaugurated as Vice-President of the United o States. The assassination of President Lincoln, a little more than a month afterward, placed him in the vacant chief executive chair. Though Mr. Johnson made no distinct pledges, it was thought by the tone of his inaugural that he would pursue a severe course toward the seceded States. Yet the broad policy of restoration he finally adopted, met the earnest disapproval of the great party by which he had been elected. The main point at issue was, " whether the seceded States should be at once admitted to representation in Congress, and resume all the rights they had enjoyed before the Civil War, without further guarantees than the O surrender of their armies, and with no provision for protecting the emancipated blacks." Johnson, opposed to making any restrictive conditions, therefore persistently vetoed the vari- ous reconstructive measures adopted by Congress. Though these measures were finally passed over the President's vetoes by two-thirds of the votes of each house, yet his determined opposition to their policy, on the ground that it was unconsti- tutional, gave Congress great offense. This feeling finally became so intense, that the House of Repre- I'XESf DENTS. sentatives brought articles of impeachment against him. The trial the first of its kind known in our history was conducted by the United States Senate, presided over by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The impeachment failed, how- ever, yet only lacked one vote of the two-thirds majority requisite to the President's conviction. In 1866, Mr. Johnson made a tour to Chicago, in the course of which he made many petty speeches, which brought upon him both censure and ridicule, but he was regarded as politically harmless, and to the close of his term, March 4th, 1869, he was allowed to pursue his own policy with but little opposition. Retiring to his home at Greenville, he began anew to take an active part in the politics of his State. It required sev- eral years, however, for him to regain anything like his earlier popularity ; but finally, in January, 1875, ne succeeded in securing his election once more to the Senate of the United States, but he died on the 3oth of the following July. ULYSSES S. GRANT. HISTORY has recorded few instances of the rapid and unexpected rise of individ- uals in humble circumstances to the high- est positions, more remarkable than that afforded by the life of Ulysses S. Grant, the eighteenth UL YSSES S. GRANT. President of the United States. He was the son of Jesse R. and Hannah Simpson Grant, both na- tives of Pennsylvania. He was born April 27th, 1822, at Point Pleasant, Clermont County, Ohio. His early education was merely that of the com- mon schools of his day. By a conjunction of favoring circumstances, he passed, in 1839, fr m the bark- mill of his father's tannery to the Mili- tary Academy at West Point. He was a diligent but not distinguished student. Having graduated in 1843, the twenty-first in a class of thirty-nine, he signalized himself by his bravery in the Mexican War, being rewarded therefor by a captain's corn- mission. He then married Miss Julia J. Dent, of Saint Louis, and, after spending several years with his regiment in California and Oreo-on, left the C3 O service in July, 1854, tried farming and the real estate business with moderate success, and finally was taken by his father as a partner in his leather store at Galena. He was yet thus humbly employed when Presi- dent Lincoln issued his call for 75,000 three months' men. Marching to Springfield at the head of a company of volunteers, his military knowledge made him exceedingly useful to Gov- ernor Yates, who retained him as mustering- officer, o until he was commissioned colonel of the Twenty- first Regiment of Illinois Volunteers, on the I7th of June, 1861. The following August, having been made a brigadier-general, he took command at Cai- OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. ro, where he displayed much activity and attracted some attention. On the jth of November he fought the Battle of Belmont, where he had a horse shot under him. His capture of Fort Don- elson, with all its defenders, on the i5th of Febru- ary, 1862, after a severe battle resulting in the first real and substantial triumph of the war, at once gave Grant a national reputation. For this bril- liant victory he was immediately rewarded by a commission as major-general of volunteers. Soon after the capture of Donelson, General Grant was placed in command of an important expedition up the Tennessee River. At Pittsburg Landing, while preparing for an attack on Corinth, a part of his army was surprised, at daybreak of the 6th of April, by an overwhelming force of Confederates, and driven from their camp with severe loss. Rallying his men that evening under the protection of the gun-boats, Grant, having been reinforced during the night, renewed the battle the following morning, and, after an obsti- nate contest, compelled the enemy to fall back upon Corinth. In July, General Grant was placed in command of the Department of West Tennessee, with his headquarters at Corinth, which the Confederates had evacuated in the previous May. On the iQth of September he gained a complete victory over the Confederates at luka, and then removed his headquarters to Jackson, Tennessee. Vicksburg, ULYSSES S. GRANT. on the Mississippi, having- been strongly fortified and garrisoned by the enemy, the duty of taking that place devolved upon Grant. After several attempts against it from the north, all of which resulted more or less disastrously, he finally moved his army down the west bank of the river, and, crossing to the east side, at a point below the city, began, on the i8th of May, 1863, a formal siege, which lasted until the 4th of the ensuing July, when the place was surrendered, with nearly thirty thousand prisoners and an immense amount of military stores. Grant's capture of Vicksburg, the result of that tenacity of purpose which is a marked trait in his character, was hailed with unbounded delight by the whole country. He was immediately commis- sioned a major-general in the regular army, and placed in command of the entire military Division of the Mississippi. Congress also, meeting in December, ordered a gold medal to be struck for him, and passed resolutions of thanks to him and his army. Still further, a bill reviving the grade of lieutenant-general was passed, and, on the ist of March, 1864, Grant was appointed by Presi- dent Lincoln to the position thus created. Having now been placed at the head of an army of seven hundred thousand men, Grant, announcing that his headquarters would be in the field, " at once planned two movements, to be di- rected simultaneously against vital points of the 488 OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. Confederacy." One of these, with Richmond for its point of attack, he commanded in person ; the other, against Atlanta, in Georgia, was headed by General Sherman. On the 3d of May, Grant began the movement against Richmond, crossing the Rapidan, and pushing determinedly into the " Wilderness," where, met by Lee, a bloody battle was fought, foiling his first attempt to place himself between the Confederate Army and their threatened capi- tal. Advancing by the left flank, he was again confronted by Lee at Spottsylvania, and com- pelled to make another flank movement, resulting in his again being brought to a stand by his wary antagonist. Declaring his determination "to fight it out on this line if it took him all summer," Grant still pushed on by a series of flank move- ments, each culminating in a sanguinary battle, in which his losses were fearful, and finally, pass- ing Richmond on the east, crossed the James, and laid siege to the city of Petersburg, the cap- ture of which now became the great problem of the war. Grant crossed the James on the 1 5th of June, 1864. It was not until the beginning of April, 1865, after a series of desperate assaults, coming to a crisis in the battle of Five Forks, in which Grant gained a crowning triumph, that Peters- burg finally succumbed. The fall of Petersburg compelled Lee to evacuate Richmond with the UL YSSES S. GRANT. meagre remnant of his army. He retreated westward toward Danville, followed closely by Grant. At the same time Sherman, who had met with almost unparalleled success in his part of the concerted movement, was marching triumphantly through Alabama and Georgia to the sea-coast, along which he swept northward, and was threat- ening Lee from another quarter, so that, placed between two large armies, both flushed with vic- tory, no other resource was left him than to sur- render the thin remnant of his force. This he did, to Grant, at Appomattox Court-House, on the 9th of April, 1865, and the "Great Rebellion " was thus virtually brought to a close. On the conclusion of the war, Grant made Washington his headquarters, and was, in July, 1866, commissioned General of the United States Army a rank which had been specially created to do him honor. In August, 1867, he for awhile acted as Secretary of War ad interim under President Johnson ; but, notwithstanding the lat- ter's earnest request to the contrary, he, when the Senate refused to sanction Stanton's removal, restored the position to that gentleman, from whom it had been taken. In the Republican National Convention, held at Chicago, on the 2istof May, 1868, General Grant was on the first ballot unanimously nominated as the candidate of that party for the Presidency. His Democratic competitor was Horatio Sey- ' AGO OUR ' DORMER PRESIDENTS. mour, of New York. The election resulted in Grant receiving two hundred and fourteen out of two hundred and ninety-four electoral votes. He was inaugurated on the 4th of March, 1869. Though brought into conflict with some of the prominent men of his party by his determined effort to bring about the annexation of San Do- mingo to the United States, President Grant's first official term gave satisfaction to the mass of his Republican adherents. During the first six months of his term the public debt was reduced some fifty millions of dollars, order and prosper- ity were rapidly restored throughout the Southern States, and the hatred and animosities of the war were greatly softened, though Grant's firmness in many instances had begotten severe opposition. In their National Convention at Philadelphia, on the 5th of June, 1872, he was nominated by acclamation for a second term. His opponent in this contest was Horace Greeley, who was sup- ported by both the Democrats and the so-called Liberal Republicans. The election resulted in the success of General Grant, who received two hundred and sixty-eight out of the three hundred and forty-eight electoral votes cast. He was in- augurated a second time on the 4th of March, 1873- Grant's second term was one of improving prospects, though the transitions from the exces- sive inflations attendant on the war to the solid GENERAL GRANT'S "WELCOME HO.ME" IN PHILADELPHIA. UL YSSES S. GRANT. business basis of peace made financial affairs un- steady and led to the famous panic of '73. But prosperity returned gradually and on a more solid basis, and the great Centennial Exposition of 1876, at Philadelphia, was a fitting crown upon the final year of Grant's eight years of Presidential work and honor. In his last message to Congress he urged compulsory common-school education where other means of education are not provided; the exclusion of all sectarianism from public schools; the prohibition of voting, after 1890, to all persons unable to read and write ; the perma- nent separation of Church and State; entire reli- gious freedom for all sects, and legislation to speedily secure a return to sound currency. General Grant was strongly urged to accept the nomination for a third term, but declined the honor and retired to private life, March 4th, 1877. After his long-continued public service, an ex- tended trip abroad was deemed desirable by the General. Arrangements were matured accord- ingly, and on May lyth, 1877, he sailed from Phila- delphia in the steamer Indiana. His journey was prosperous in every respect. He made the tour of the world and reached San Francisco Septem- ber 2Oth, 1879. Everywhere he was the recipient of the highest honors. The most distinguished o o crowned heads and military leaders of all nations were proud to do him honor, and he in return did many personal friendly offices which were most OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. gratefully recognized. He finally settled in New York city, where he is justly honored and highly appreciated by all. RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. RUTHERFORD BIRCHARD HAYES, the nineteenth incumbent of the Presiden- tial chair, was born at Delaware, Ohio, October 4th, 1822. He enjoyed the most favorable surroundings of refinement and culture in his youth, and graduated at Kenyon College in 1842. In 1845, h e graduated from the Harvard Law School and began practice in Fremont, Ohio, from which place he removed to Cincinnati in 1849. He served as City Solicitor for several years, until the breaking out of the war, when he took the field as major of the Twenty- third Ohio Volun- teers. He had a splendid record, rising to the com- mand of a division, being breveted major-general, and continuing until June ist, 1865, when he re- signed his rank and returned to Cincinnati. In December, 1865, he entered Congress, to which he had been elected before he left the army. He was re-elected to this position, but resigned to become Governor of Ohio, to which office he was three times chosen, an honor never before conferred in that State. The prominent issues in his last campaign for the Governorship were the RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. currency and the school questions. So satis- factory were his views on these measures, that he received much favorable mention for nomination in the Presidential campaign then approaching. On June i6th, 1876, the Republican Convention met at Cincinnati, and on the seventh ballot Hayes received the nomination over James G. Blaine and Benjamin H. Bristow. Hayes received three hundred and eighty-four votes, Blaine three hundred and fifty-one, and Bristow twenty-one. The contest was bitter in the Convention and in the succeeding canvass, and its close was a disputed election, the electoral votes of Florida, South Caro- lina, and Louisiana being claimed by both parties, as was one electoral vote of Oregon also. The contest was finally referred to an Electoral Com- mission, which decided by a vote of eight to seven that Hayes was elected, and he, accordingly, suc- ceeded General Grant in the office on March 4th, 1877, the inauguration occurring on the next day, Monday, March 5th. The great feature of this Administration was the full resumption of specie payments, a success achieved without jar or con- fusion of any kind in the business of the country. At the close of his term, March 4th, 1881, Mr. Hayes turned over the Administration to his suc- cessor amid peace and prosperity such as the na- tion seldom enjoyed, and returned to his home in Ohio, where he still lives (June, 1884), respected and beloved by all his fellow-citizens. 498 OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. JAMES A. GARFIELD. THE nation's choice for the twenty-fourth Presidential term, James Abram Garfield, was born November i gth, 1 83 1 , at Orange, Cuyahoga County, Ohio. His ancestors were early immigrants of New England, and they bore noble part in all the hardships and sufferings of the Rev- olutionary and earlier periods. His parents were Abram and Eliza Garfield, his father dying when James was but a child, and his mother surviving to see his exaltation to the -Presidency and his un- timely end. James Garfield's early life was one filled with the struggles incident to poverty on the frontier settlements. On the farm, on the canal, and at the carpenter's bench, he toiled energetically, read- ing and studying all the while, that he might fit himself for college. He finally betook himself to teaching as a means of subsistence, and while so engaged pressed his own education diligently. He decided to enter Williams College, Mass., which he did, in June, 1854, in a class nearly two years advanced. He had saved some money, but he worked during his vacations and at spare mo- ments, and so was enabled to complete his course, though somewhat in debt, graduating August, 1856. While yet a student, he became much interested in politics and made some speeches on his favorite views. JAMES A. GARPIELD. After his graduation, he entered Hiram College, Ohio, as a teacher of ancient languages and liter- ature, and soon after became its President. Mean- while, he was active in a wide variety of good works, preaching, addressing temperance -meet- ings, making political speeches, and at the same time pursuing the study of the law. In 1858, he married Lucretia Rudolph, who had been a fellow- student with him in his academic schooldays. As a logical and effective political speaker, Gar- field soon became prominent, and in 1859 was elected to the Senate of his native State, where he immediately took high rank, although he still con- tinued to be much engaged in literary and relig- ious work. In August, 1861, he solemnly consid- ered the question of entering the army, and wrote his conclusion thus : " I regard my life as given to my country. I am only anxious to make as much of it as possible before the mortgage on it is fore- closed." As a soldier, Garfield was thorough, brave, and efficient. He had a large share of hard fighting in the West and the Southwest, but he won high praise in it all, rising from the rank of lieutenant-colonel to that of brigadier-general and chief of staff to General Rosecrans, in which capacity he served until the battle of Chickamauga had been fought, when he was promoted to a major-generalship for "gallant and meritorious conduct" on that bloody field. C O 2 OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. Just before this battle, Garfield had been chosen by his fellow-citizens in Ohio as their representa- tive in Congress. To accept this post was deemed his duty by all his friends and advisers, so he re- signed his commission on the 5th of December, 1863, an d took his place in Congress at less than half the salary drawn by one of his military rank. In this new position he exercised the same earn- est conscientiousness' he had ever shown. He was a master workman in every line of duty there for seventeen years, during which period he left the imprint of his ability and patriotism as thoroughly upon the legislation of the country as any one man in public service. He certainly realized the meaning of the title, "a public benefactor," as de- fined in his own speech made on December loth, 1878, in which he said: "The man who wants to serve his country must put himself in the line of its leading thought, and that is the restoration of business, trade, commerce, industry, sound polit- ical economy, hard money, and the payment of all obligations, and the man who can add anything in the direction of accomplishing any of these pur- poses is a public benefactor." No man with such an ideal could fail to at once take high rank. Nor did Garfield fail to do so. At the outset he was recognized as a leader, and his influence grew with his service. He was at once appointed on the Military Committee, under the chairmanship of General Schenck and the col- GEN. GARFIELD-S HOME, MENTOR, OHIO. JAMES A. GARF1ELD. leagueship of Farnsworth, both fresh from the field. In this work he was of great service just as Rosecrans anticipated he would be. His thor- ough knowledge of the wants of the army was of the first value in all legislation pertaining to mil- itary matters. He was appointed chairman of a select committee of seven appointed to investigate the alleged frauds in the money-printing bureau of the Treasury, and on other very important and complicated matters he rendered service of the greatest value. He did most excellent work, as an orator, on many momentous questions, as the following partial list of his published Congressional speeches will show: "Free Commerce between the States;" " National Bureau of Education ;" " The Public Debt and Specie Payments ;" "Taxation of United States Bonds ;" " Ninth Census ;" " Public Expen- ditures and Civil Service ;"" The Tariff;" "Cur- rency and the Banks ;" " Debate on the Currency Bill ;" " On the McGarrahan Claim ;" " The Right to Originate Revenue Bills ;" " Public Expendi- tures ;" ' National Aid to Education ," " The Cur- rency ;" " Revenues and Expenditures ;" " Curren- cy and the Public Faith ;" "Appropriations;" "Count- ing the Electoral Vote ;" " Repeal of the Resump- tion Law ;" " The New Scheme of American Fi- nance ;" "The Tariff;"" Suspension and Resump- tion of Specie Payments ;" " Relation of the Na- tional Government to Science ;" " Sugar Tariff." 506 OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. It was a surprise to nobody, but a real pleasure to multitudes, when at Chicago, on June 8th, 1880, James A. Garfield received the nomination for the Presidency by three hundred and ninety-nine votes in a total of seven hundred and fifty-five. This was upon the thirty-sixth ballot of the nomi- nating Convention, but not until then had Garfield been prominently brought forward. His nomi- nation was at once made unanimous in the Con- vention, and hailed with joy throughout the land. His chief opponent was the superb soldier, Major- General Winfield S. Hancock, but Garfield and Arthur received two hundred and fourteen of three hundred and sixty-nine electoral votes and secured the highest offices in the gift of the na- tion. Garfield was inaugurated amid general satisfac- tion throughout the nation. His venerable mother saw her son's exaltation on that memorable In- auguration Day, and received from him, as the newly made President, his kiss of filial love. Every department of the public service felt the force of the new regime, and prosperity beamed on every side until the fatal Saturday, July 2d, 1 88 1, when the assassin's bullet cut short the era of joy and hopefulness which had just fairly dawned. Of the subsequent weeks of suffering and anxiety, through which that valuable life trembled in the balance, while the nation's hopes and fears rose and fell alternately, and of the sad, SAMUEL J. KIRKWOOD, SECT. OF THE INTERIOR. PRESIDENT GARFIELD'S CABINET. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 509 sad end at Elberon, New Jersey, on September 29th, the world is well informed. The wound then made in the nation's heart is open still, and further mention need not here be made of those agonizing- and still fresh experiences. But the fittest tribute that can here be paid to Garfield's memory is from the lips of his intimate associate and fellow-worker, Hon. James G. Elaine. By request of the national authorities, he delivered, February 2yth, 1882, the official eulogy upon the deceased President. All the magnates of the capital were present in the Hall of Representatives to hear that oration, from which masterly effort the follow- ing somewhat disconnected, but none the less effective, paragraphs are taken : No manly man feels anything of shame in looking back to early struggles with adverse cir- cumstances, and no man feels a worthier pride than when he has conquered the obstacles in his pro- gress. But no one of noble mold desires to be looked upon as having occupied a menial position, as having been repressed by a feeling of inferiority, or as having suffered the evils of poverty until re- lief was found at the hand of charity. General Garfield's youth presented no hardships which family love and family energy did not overcome, subjected him to no privations which he did not cheerfully accept, and left no memories save those which were recalled with delight and transmitted with profit and with pride. 5 i o OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. Garfield's early opportunities for securing an education were extremely limited, and yet were sufficient to develop in him an intense desire to learn. He could read at three years of age, and each winter he had the advantage of the district school. He read all the books to be found within the circle of his acquaintance ; some of them he got by heart. While yet in childhood he was a constant student of the Bible, and became familiar with its literature. The dignity and earnestness of his speech in his maturer life gave evidence of this early training. At eighteen years of age he was able to teach school, and thenceforward his ambition was to obtain a college education. To this end he bent all his efforts, working in the har- vest field, at the carpenter's bench, and, in the winter season, teaching the common schools of the neighborhood. W T hile thus laboriously occu- pied he found time to prosecute his studies, and was so successful that at twenty-two years of age he was able to enter the junior class at Williams College, then under the presidency of the vener- able and honored Mark Hopkins, who, in the full- ness of his powers, survives the eminent pupil to whom he was of inestimable service. The history of Garfield's life to this period pre- sents no novel features. He had undoubtedly shown perseverance, self-reliance, self-sacrifice, and ambition qualities which, be it said for the honor of our country, are everywhere to be found JAMES A. GAR FIELD. e j j among the young men of America. But from his graduation at Williams onward, to the hour of his tragical death, Garfield's career was eminent and exceptional. Slowly working through his educational period, receiving his diploma when twenty-four years of age, he seemed at one bound to spring into conspicuous and brilliant success. Within six years he was successively president of a college, State Senator of Ohio, Major-General of the Army of the United States, and Repre- sentative-elect to the National Congress. A combination of honors so varied, so elevated, within a period so brief, and to a man so young, is without precedent or parallel in the history of the country. Garfield's army life was begun with no other military knowledge than such as he had hastily gained from books in the few months preceding his march to the field. Stepping from civil life to the head of a regiment, the first order he received when ready to cross the Ohio, was to assume com- mand of a brigade, and to operate as an indepen- dent force in Eastern Kentucky. His immediate duty was to check the advance of Humphrey Marshall, who was marching down the Big Sandy with the intention of occupying, in connection with other Confederate forces, the entire territory of Kentucky, and of precipitating the State into se- cession. This was at the close of the year 1861. Seldom, if ever, has a young college professor been thrown into a more embarrassing and dis- c i 2 OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. couraging position. He knew just enough of military science, as he expressed it himself, to measure the extent of his ignorance, and with a handful of men he was marching, in rough winter weather, into a strange country, among a hostile population, to confront a largely superior force under the command of a distinguished graduate of West Point, who had seen active and import- ant service in two preceding wars. The result of the campaign is matter of history. The skill, the endurance, the extraordinary energy shown byGarfield, the courage he imparted to his men, raw and untried as himself, the measures he adopted to increase his force and to create in the enemy's mind exaggerated estimates of his num- bers, bore perfect fruit in the routing of Marshall, the capture of his camp, the dispersion of his force, and the emancipation of an important territory from the control of the Rebellion. Com- ing at the close of a long series of disasters to the Union arms, Garfield's victory had an unusual and extraneous importance, and in the popular judgment elevatecf the young commander to the rank of a military hero. With less than two thousand men in his entire command, with a mo- bilized force of only eleven hundred, without can- non, he had met an army of five thousand and defeated them, driving Marshall's forces succes- sively from two strongholds of their own selec- tion, fortified with abundant artillery. Major- JAMES A. GARFIELD. c ! 3 General Buell, commanding the Department of the Ohio, an experienced and able soldier of the Regular Army, published an order of thanks and congratulation on the brilliant result of the Big Sandy campaign, which would have turned the head of a less cool and sensible man than Gar- field. Buell declared that his services, had called into action the highest qualities of a soldier, and President Lincoln supplemented these words of praise by the more substantial reward of a briga- dier-general's commission, to bear date from the day of his decisive victory over Marshall. Early in 1863, Garfield was assigned to the highly important and responsible post of chief of staff to General Rosecrans, then at the head of the Army of the Cumberland. Perhaps in a great military campaign, no subordinate officer requires sounder judgment and quicker knowledge of men than the chief of staff to the commanding general. An indiscreet man in such a position can sow more discord, breed more jealousy, and disseminate more strife than any other officer in the entire or- ganization. When General Garfield assumed his new duties he found various troubles already well developed, and seriously affecting the value and efficiency of the Army of the Cumberland. The en- ergy, the impartiality, and the tact with which he sought to allay these dissensions, and to discharge the duties of his new and trying position, will always remain one of the most striking proofs of 5'4 OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. his great versatility. His military duties closed on the memorable field of Chickamauga, a field which, however disastrous to the Union arms, gave to him the occasion of winning imperishable laurels. The very rare distinction was accorded him of a great promotion for his bravery on a field that was lost. President Lincoln appointed him a ma- jor-general in the army of the United States for gallant and meritorious conduct in the battle of Chickamauga. The Army of the Cumberland was reorganized under the command of General Thomas, who promptly offered Garfield one of its divisions. He was extremely desirous to accept the position, but was embarrassed by the fact that he had, a year before, been elected to Congress, and the time when he must take his seat was drawing near. He preferred to remain in the military service, and had within his own breast the largest confidence of success in the wider field which his new rank opened to him. Balancing the arguments on the one side and the other, anxious to determine what was for the best, desirous above all things to do his patriotic duty, he was decisively influenced by the advice of President Lincoln and Secretary Stanton, both of whom assured him that he could, at that time, be of especial value in the House of Representatives. He resigned his commission of Major-General on the fifth day of December, 1863, and took his seat in the house of Representatives JAMES A. GARFIELD. 515 on the seventh. He had served two years and four months in the army, and had just completed his thirty-second year. The Thirty-Eighth Congress is pre-eminently entitled in history to the designation of the War Congress. It was elected while the war was fla- grant, and every member was chosen upon the is- sues involved in the continuance of the struggle. The Thirty-Seventh Congress had, indeed, legis- lated to a large extent on war measures, but it was chosen before any one believed that secession of the States would be actually attempted. The magnitude of the work which fell upon its suc- cessor was unprecedented, both in respect to the vast sums of money raised for the support of the army and navy, and of the new and extraordinary powers of legislation which it was forced to ex- ercise. Only twenty-four States were represented, and one hundred and eighty-two members were upon its roll. Among these were many dis- tinguished party leaders on both sides, veterans in the public service, with established reputations for ability, and with that skill which comes only from parliamentary experience. Into this assem- blage of men Garfield entered without special preparation, and it might almost be said unex- pectedly. The question of taking command of a division of troops under General Thomas, or tak- ing his seat in Congress, was kept open till the last moment so late, indeed, that the resignation 5 i 6 OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. of his military commission and his appearance in the House were almost contemporaneous. He wore the uniform of a Major-General of the United States Army on Saturday, and on Monday, in civilian's dress, he answered to the roll-call as a Representative in Congress from the State of Ohio. With possibly a single exception, Garfield w^s the youngest member in the House when he en- tered, and was but seven years from his college graduation. But he had not been in his seat sixty days before his ability was recognized and his place conceded. He stepped to the front with the confi- dence of one who belonged there. The House was crowded with strong men of both parties ; nineteen of them have since been transferred to the Senate, and many of them have served with distinction in the gubernatorial chairs of their re- spective States, and on foreign missions of great consequence ; but among them all none grew so rapidly, none so firmly as Garfield. As is said by Trevelyan of his parliamentary hero, Garfield suc- ceeded " because all the world in concert could not have kept him in the background, and because when once in the front he played his part with a prompt intrepidity and a commanding ease that were but the outward symptoms of the immense reserves of energy on which it was in his power to draw." Indeed, the apparently reserved force which Garfield possessed was one of his great JAMES A. GARFIELD. 517 characteristics. He never did so well but that it seemed he could easily have done better. He never expended so much strength but that he seemed to be holding additional power at call. This is one of the happiest and rarest distinctions of an effective debater, and often counts for as much in persuading an assembly as the eloquent and elaborate argument. The great measure of Garfield's fame was filled by his service in the House of Representatives. His military life, illustrated by honorable perform- ance, and rich in promise, was, as he himself felt, prematurely terminated, and necessarily incom- plete. Speculation as to what he might have done in a field where the great prizes are so few, cannot be profitable. It is sufficient to say that, as a sol- dier, he did his duty bravely; he did it intelligently; he won an enviable fame, and he retired from the service without blot or breath against him. As a lawyer, though admirably equipped for the pro- fession, he can scarcely be said to have entered on its. practice. The few efforts he made at the bar were distinguished by the same high order of talent which he exhibited on every field where he was put to the test, and if a man may be accepted as a competent judge of his own capacities and adapta- tions, the law was the profession to which Garfield should have devoted himself. But fate ordained otherwise, and his reputation in history will rest largely upon his service in the House of Repre- 518 OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. sentatives, to a place in which he was chosen for nine consecutive terms, Garfield's nomination to the Presidency, while not predicted or anticipated, was not a surprise to the country. His prominence in Congress, his solid qualities, his wide reputation, strengthened by his then recent election as Senator from Ohio, kept him in the public eye as a man occupying the very highest rank among those entitled to be called statesmen. It was not mere chance that brought him this high honor. "We must," says Mr. Emerson, " reckon success a constitutional trait. If Eric is in robust health, and has slept well, and is at the top of his condition, and thirty years old at his departure from Greenland, he will steer west, and his ships will reach Newfoundland. But take Eric out, and put in a stronger and bolder man, and the ships will sail six hundred, one thou- sand, fifteen hundred miles farther, and reach Lab- rador and New England. There is no chance in results." As a candidate, Garfield steadily grew in popu- lar favor. He was met with a storm of detraction at the very hour of his nomination, and it con- tinued with increasing volume and momentum until the close of his victorous campaign: " No might nor greatness in mortality Can censure 'scape ; back-wounding calumny The whitest virtue strikes. What king so strong Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue ?" JAMES A. GARFIELD. 519 Under it all he was calm, and strong, and confi- dent; never lost his self-possession, did no unwise act, spoke no hasty or ill-considered word. In- deed, nothing in his whole life is more remark- able or more creditable than his bearing- through those five full months of vituperation a prolonged agony of trial to a sensitive man, a constant and cruel draft upon the powers of moral endurance. The great mass of these unjust imputations passed unnoticed, and with the general debris of the cam- paign fell into oblivion. But in a few instances the iron entered his soul, and he died with the in- jury unforgotten, if not unforgiven. One aspect of Garfield's candidacy was unpre- cedented. Never before, in the history of partisan contests in this country, had a successful Presiden- tial candidate spoken freely on passing events and current issues. To attempt anything of the kind seemed novel, rash, and even desperate. The older class of voters recalled the unfortunate Ala- bama letter, in which Mr. Clay was supposed to have signed his political death warrant. They re- membered also the hot-tempered effusion by which General Scott lost a large share of his popularity before his nomination, and the unfor- tunate speeches which rapidly consumed the re- mainder. The younger voters had seen Mr. Greeley in a series of vigorous and original ad- dresses, preparing the pathway for his own defeat. Unmindful of these warnings, unheeding the ad- 520 OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. vice of friends, Garfield spoke to large crowds as he journeyed to and from New York in August, to a great multitude in that city, to delegations and deputations of every kind that called at Mentor during the summer and autumn. With innumer- able critics, watchful and eager to catch a phrase that might be turned into odium or ridicule, or a sentence that micrht be distorted to his own or o his party's injury, Garfield did not trip or halt in any one of his seventy speeches. This seems all the more remarkable when it is remembered that he did not write what he said, and yet spoke with such logical consecutiveness of thought, and such admirable precision of phrase as to defy the acci- dent of misreport, and the malignity of misrepre- sentation. In the beginning of his Presidential life, Gar- field's experience did not yield him pleasure or satisfaction. The duties that engross so large a portion of the President's time were distasteful to him, and were unfavorably contrasted with his legislative work. " I have been dealing all these years with ideas," he impatiently exclaimed one day, " and here I am dealing only with persons. I have been heretofore treating of the fundamental prin- ciples of government, and here I am considering all day whether A or B shall be appointed to this or that office." He was earnestly seeking some practical way of correcting the evils arising from the distribution of overgrown and unwieldy pat- JAMES A. GARFIELD. 521 ronage evils always appreciated and often dis- cussed by him, but whose magnitude had been more deeply impressed upon his mind since his acces- sion to the Presidency. Had he lived, a compre- hensive improvement in the mode of appointments would have been proposed by him. Garfield's ambition for the success of His ad- ministration was high. With strong caution and conservatism in his nature, he was in no danger of attempting rash experiments or of resorting to the empiricism of statesmanship. But he believed that renewed and closer attention should be given to questions affecting the material interests and commercial prospects of fifty millions of people. He believed that our continental relations, exten- sive and undeveloped as they are, involved re- sponsibility, and could be cultivated into profitable friendship or be abandoned to harmless indiffer- ence or lasting enmity. He believed with equal confidence that an essential forerunner to a new era of national progress must be a feeling of con- tentment in every section of the Union, and a generous belief that the benefits and burdens of government would be common to all. Himself a conspicuous illustration of what ability and am- bition may do under republican institutions, he loved his country with a passion of patriotic de- votion, and every waking thought was given to her advancement. He was an American in all his aspirations, and he looked to the destiny and -22 OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. influence of the United States with the philosophic composure of Jefferson and the demonstrative confidence of John Adams. The religious element in Garfield's character was deep and earnest. In his early youth, he espoused the faith of the Disciples, a sect of that great Baptist Communion, which, in different ecclesiastical establishments, is so numerous and so influential throughout all parts of the United States. But the broadening tendency of his mind and his active spirit of inquiry were early appar- ent and carried him beyond the dogmas of sect and the restraints of association. In selecting a college in which to continue his education he rejected Bethany, though presided over by Alex- ander Campbell, the greatest preacher of his Church. His reasons were characteristic : first, that Bethany leaned too heavily towards slavery ; and, second, that being himself a Disciple and the son of Disciple parents, he had little acquaintance with people of other beliefs, and he thought it would make him more liberal, quoting his own words, both in his religious and general views, to go into a new circle and be under new influences. The liberal tendency which he anticipated as the result of wider culture was fully realized. He was emancipated from mere sectarian belief, and with eager interest pushed his investigations in the direction of modern progressive thought. He followed with quickening step into the paths of JAMES A. GARFIELD. exploration and speculation so fearlessly trodden by Darwin, by Huxley, by Tyndall, and by other living scientists of the radical and advanced type. His own Church, binding its disciples by no for- mulated creed, but accepting the Old and New Testaments as the word of God, with unbiased liberty of private interpretation, favored, if it did not stimulate, the spirit of investigation. Its mem- bers profess with sincerity, and profess only, to be of one mind and of one faith with those who im- mediately followed the Master, and who were first called Christians at Antioch. But however high Garfield reasoned of " fixed fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute," he was never separated from the Church of the Disciples in his affections and in his associations. For him it held the ark of the covenant. To him it was the gate of Heaven. The world of religious belief is full of solecisms and contradictions. A philoso- phic observer declares that men by the thousand will die in defense of a creed whose doctrines they do not comprehend and whose tenets they habitually violate. It is equally true that men by the thousand will cling to Church organizations with instinctive and undying fidelity when their belief in maturer years is radically different from that which inspired them as neophytes. But after this range of speculation, and this latitude of doubt, Garfield came back always with freshness and delight to the simpler instincts of OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. religious faith, which, earliest implanted, longest survive. Not many weeks before his assassina- tion, walking on the banks of the Potomac with a friend, and conversing on those topics of personal religion concerning which noble natures have an o o unconquerable reserve, he said that he found the Lord's Prayer and the simple petitions learned in infancy infinitely restful to him, not merely in their stated repetition, but in their casual and frequent recall as he went about the daily duties of life. Certain texts of Scripture had a very strong hold on his memory and his heart. He heard, while in Edinburgh some years ago, an eminent Scotch preacher who prefaced his sermon with reading the eighth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, which book had been the subject of careful study with Garfield during all his religious life. He was greatly impressed by the elocution of the preacher and declared that it had imparted a new and deeper meaning to the majestic utterances of St. Paul. He referred often in after years to that memorable service, and dwelt with exaltation of feeling upon the radiant promise and the as- sured hope with which the great Apostle of the Gentiles was "persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us irom the love of God, which is in Christ Jec;;s our Lord." JAMES A. GARFIELD. The crowning characteristic of General Gar- field's religious opinions, as, indeed, of all his opin- ions, was his liberality. In all things he had char- ity. Tolerance was of his nature. He respected in others the qualities which he possessed himself, sincerity of conviction and frankness of expres- sion. With him the inquiry was not so much what a man believes, but does he believe it ? The lines of his friendship and his confidence encircled men of every creed, and men of no creed, and to the end of his life, on his ever-lengthening list of friends, were to be found the names of a pious Catholic priest and of an honest-minded and gen- erous-hearted free-thinker. On the morning of Saturday, July 2d, the Presi- dent was a contented and happy man not in an ordinary degree, but joyfully, almost boyishly happy. On his way to the railroad station, to which he drove slowly, in conscious enjoyment of the beautiful morning, with an unwonted sense of leisure and a keen anticipation of pleasure, his talk was all in the grateful and gratulatory vein. He felt that after four months of trial his adminis- tration was strong in its grasp of affairs, strong in popular favor, and destined to grow stronger; that grave difficulties confronting him at his in- auguration had been safely passed ; that trouble lay behind him and not before him ; that he was soon to meet the wife whom he loved, now recov- ering from an illness which had but lately disqui- 526 OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. eted and at times almost unnerved him ; that he was going to his Alma Mater to renew the most cherished associations of his young manhood, and to exchange greetings with those whose deepen- ing interest had followed every step of his upward progress from the day he entered upon his college course until he had attained the loftiest elevation in the gift of his countrymen. Surely, if happiness can ever come from the honors or triumphs of this world, on that quiet July morning James A. Garfield may well have been a happy man. No foreboding of evil haunted him ; no slightest premonition of danger clouded his sky. His terrible fate was upon him in an instant. One moment he stood erect, strong, con- fident in the years stretching peacefully out before him ; the next he lay wounded, bleeding, helpless, doomed to weary weeks of torture, to silence, and the grave. Great in life, he was surpassingly great in death. For no cause, in the very frenzy of wantonness and wickedness, by the red hand of murder, he was thrust from the full tide of this world's interest, from its hopes, its aspirations, its victories, into the visible presence of death and he did not quail. Not alone for the one short moment in which, stunned and dazed, he could give up life, hardly aware of its relinquishment, but through days of deadly languor, through weeks of agony, that was not less agony because silently borne, with clear JAMES A. GARFIELD. 5 2 7 sight and calm courage, he looked into his open grave. What blight and ruin met his anguished eyes, whose lips may tell ? what brilliant, broken plans ; what baffled, high ambitions ; what sunder- ing of strong, warm, manhood's friendships; what bitter rending of sweet household ties ! Behind him a proud, expectant nation, a great host of sus- taining friends, a cherished and happy mother, wearing the full, rich honors of her early toil and tears ; the wife of his youth, whose whole life lay in his ; the little boys not yet emerged from childhood's days of frolic ; the fair young daughter ; the sturdy sons just springing into closest com- panionship, claiming every day and every day rewarding a father's love and care ; and in his heart the eager, rejoicing power to meet all demands. Before him, desolation and great dark- ness ! And his soul was not shaken. His coun- trymen were thrilled with instant, profound, and universal sympathy. Masterful in his mortal weakness, he became the centre of a nation's love, enshrined in the prayers of a world. But all the love and all the sympathy could not share with him his suffering. He trod the wine-press alone. With unfaltering front he faced death. With mifailing tenderness he took leave of life. Above the demoniac hiss of the assassin's bullet he heard the voice of God. With simple resignation he bowed to the Divine decree. As the end drew near, his early craving for the 528 OUR FORMER PRESIDENTS. sea returned. The stately mansion of power had been to him the wearisome hospital of pain, and he begged to be taken from its prison walls, from its oppressive, stifling air, from its homelessness and its hopelessness. Gently, silently, the love of a great people bore the pale sufferer to the longed- for healing of the sea, to live or to die, as God should will, within sight of its heaving billows, within sound of its manifold voices. With wan, fevered face tenderly lifted to the cooling breeze, he looked out wistfully upon the ocean's changing wonders ; on its far sails, whitening in the morn- ing light ; on its restless waves, rolling shoreward to break and die beneath the noonday sun ; on the red clouds of evening, arching low in the horizon ; on the serene and shining pathway of the stars. Let us think that his dying eyes read a mystic mean- ing which only the rapt and parting soul may know. Let us believe that in the silence of the receding world he heard the great waves breaking on a farther shore, and felt already upon his wasted brow the breath of the eternal morning. After extended and most impressive funeral obsequies, President Garfield's mortal remains were laid to rest in Lake View Cemetery in the fair City of Cleveland, Ohio, on Monday, Sep- tember 26th, 1 88 1, and thus a new shrine was reared to which the patriotic hearts of America will never cease to turn with profound interest. CHESTER A. ARTHUR. CHESTER A. ARTHUR. THE exodus from foreign lands to this coun- try has at all times since the early years of the present century been remarkable for its steadiness though varying during the de- cades. A home in freedom and a chance for a fortune in climes where centuries have not bound with iron every man's position is always an incen- tive to brave spirits. Among those who took the tide in its flow, at the beginning of the twenties, was a young Pro- testant Irishman from Ballymena, County Antrim, who bore the name of William Arthur. He was eighteen years of age, a graduate of Belfast Col- lege, and thoroughly imbued with the intention of becoming a Baptist clergyman. In this he perse- vered, was admitted to the ministry, took a degree of D.D., and followed a career of great usefulness, which did not terminate until he died, at Newton- ville, near Albany, October 27th, 1875. He was in many respects a remarkable man. He acquired a wide fame in his chosen career, and entered suc- cessfully the great competition of authors. He published a work on Family Names that is to- day regarded as one of the curiosities of English erudite literature. He married, not long after entering the minis- try, an American, Malvina Stone, who bore him a family of two sons and five daughters. Of these, Chester Allan, the subject of this sketch, was born at Fairfield, Franklin County, Vermont, October 5th, 1830. From his home studies he went to a wider field of instruction in the insti- tutions of Schenectady, in the grammar school of which place he was prepared for entering Union College. This he did at the age of fifteen (1845), and took successfully the regular course, excelling in all his studies and graduating very high in the class of 1848. On graduating he entered the law school at Ball- , ston Springs. By rigid economy and hard work, he had managed to save five hundred dollars, and with this in his pocket he went to New York, and entered the law office of Erastus D. Culver, afterward minis- ter to one of the South American States and a judge of the Civil Court of Brooklyn. Soon after entering Judge Culver's office, he was in 1852 admitted to the bar, and formed the firm of Culver, Partsen & Arthur, which was dissolved in 1 837. No sooner had he won his title to appear in the courts, than he formed a partnership with an old friend, Henry D. Gardner, with an intention of practicing in the West, and for three months these young gentle- men roamed through the Western States in search of a place to locate. In the end, not satisfied, they returned to New York and began practice. The law career of Mr. Arthur includes some notable cases. One of his first cases was the cele- CHESTER A. ARTHUR. brated Lemmon suit. In 1852, Jonathan and Juliet Lemmon, Virginia slaveholders, intending to emi- grate to Texas, went to New York to await the sailing of a steamer, bringing eight slaves with them. A writ of habeas corpus was obtained from Judge Paine to test the question whether the provisions of the Fugitive Slave Law were in force in that State. Judge Paine rendered a decision holding that they were not, and ordering the Lem- mon slaves to be liberated. Henry L. Clinton was one of the counsel for the slaveholders. A howl of rage went up from the South, and the Virginia Legislature authorized the Attorney- General of that State to assist in taking an appeal. William M. Evarts and Chester A. Arthur were employed to represent the people, and they won their case, which then went to the Supreme Court of the United States. Charles O'Conor here espoused the cause of the slaveholders, but he, too, was beaten by Messrs. Evarts and Arthur, and a long step was thus taken toward the emancipation of the black race. Mr. Arthur always took an interest in politics and the political surroundings of his day. His political life began at the age of fourteen, as a champion of the Whig party. He shared, too, in the turbulence of political life at that period, and it is related of him during the Polk-Clay canvass that, while he and some of his companions were raising an ash pole in honor of Henry Clay, some V R FORMER PRESIDENTS. Democratic boys attacked the party of Whigs, and young Arthur, who was the recognized leader of the party, ordered a charge, and, taking the front ranks himself, drove the young Democrats from the field with broken heads and subdued spirits. He was a delegate to the Saratoga Con- vention that founded the Republican party in New York State. He was active in local politics, and he gradually became one of the leaders. He nominated, and by his efforts elected, the Hon. Thomas Murphy a State Senator. When the latter resigned the Collectorship of the Port, in November, 1871, Arthur was appointed by Presi- dent Grant to fill the vacancy. He was nominated for the Vice-Presidency at Chicago on the evening of Tuesday, June loth. He was heartily indorsed by the popular and electoral vote, and on the death of President Garfield, September iQth, 1881, he assumed the Presidential chair. His Administration has been an uneventful one, attended with general peace and prosperity. LIFE OF JOHN ALEXANDER LOGAN, NOMINEE FOR THE VICE-PRESIDENCY OF THE UNITED STATES. "This Government must be preserved for future gene- rations in the same mold in which it was transmitted to us, if it takes the last man and the last dollar of the present generation within its borders to accomplish it." General John A. Logan, 1862. CHAPTER I. THE BOY THE STUDENT THE SOLDIER. JOHN ALEXANDER LOGAN was the son of Dr. John Logan, a native of Ireland, who when a young man sought a home in the United States. He first settled at Ellicott's Mills, in Maryland, but soon removed thence into Ken- tucky, and from there to Missouri, where he mar- ried Miss Laramie. She died a few years after- ward, leaving a daughter, and the bereaved widower again removed, settling on a tract of land in the fertile county of Jackson, in Illinois. Al- though there had been some old settlements in that region, it was only then filling up with adven- turous pioneers, and the young physician com- menced practice among them, enjoying the privi- lege of witnessing the constantly advancing prosperity and power of his adopted State. Soon after settling on his farm, Dr. Logan married Miss Elizabeth Jenkins, a native of Ten- nessee, whose family came originally from South Carolina. She was a lady of rare worth, great industry, unusual strength of judgment, and in- domitable energy. When the town of Murphys- boro' was laid out, partly on Dr. Logan's land, he built a brick hotel there, which was managed to a 537 GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN. great extent by his wife. He was naturally a Democrat, and the poor laborer, in his shirt- sleeves, would find accommodations at his house and be seated at the table with the judges and the lawyers riding a circuit. The doctor had a large circle of patients, some of whom would come from long distances to consult him, and he was regarded as an unusually skillful and successful practitioner of the healing art. He also became a large stock raiser, and was always fond of a good horse. In the development of the neighbor- ing coal mines, the establishment of the Illinois Central Railroad, and other public works, he was always consulted, and his opinions had great weight. He was elected by the Democrats to represent his locality in the State Legislature, and he held other trusts. His spotless integrity, his professional skill, and his bluff yet genial manners made him personally popular. He died in 1855, generally beloved and respected. John Alexander Logan, the oldest son of John and Elizabeth Jenkins Logan, was born on the 9th of February, 1826. He was raised at the rural home of his parents, and inured to the hardy pur- suits of country life, which developed his physical strength and power of endurance. He did not, however, altogether like the restraints of farm labor, but it developed in him patience, industry, a stout heart, and self-reliance. On one occasion, when he was a small lad, his father found that THE BOY THE S TUDENT THE S Of. DTE R. r - Q the squirrels were carrying off the corn ripening in a field which was bordered by a piece of woods. Young Logan was sent to watch the chattering thieves until his father could find time to come and shoot them. After remaining on guard a few hours, the boy found it rather monotonous, and taking a piece of paper and pencil from his pocket he wrote a note addressed to the squirrels, in- forming them that if they did not keep away from that corn-field they would be shot. Fastening this proclamation to the fence, he joined his play- mates. The public schools of the vicinage, which young Logan attended, afforded only limited educational advantages, but Dr. Logan was fortunate enough to secure the services of a Mr. Lynch as tutor, and to thus give his children, under the parental roof, a thorough English education and the rudiments of the classical studies. These John perfected in 1840, when he attended Shiloh College. His re- markably tenacious memory enabled him to retain all that he learned. While he was a lad political excitement ran high, and he eagerly read all the newspapers which came in his way, naturally espousing the Demo- cratic views entertained by his father. He was fond of music, and occasionally performed on the violin, but his great delight was to discuss the leading topics of the day with the young nren of the vicinity. He was a daring rider, a good shot, 5 dO GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN. and the foremost to undertake any difficult or dangerous exploit. When a mere lad, some of his neighbors had built a flat-boat on the bank of a little stream, intending to float it down to the Mis- sissippi when the spring floods came. It happened, however, that the water rose unusually high, and the owners of the flat-boat were afraid to pilot it through the eddies and the fallen timber. In this o emergency young Logan volunteered to take com- mand, and, with his usual resolution and fixed pur- pose, he piloted the flat-boat through all the dangers of the river navigation into the broad Mississippi. When war with Mexico was declared, young Logan, with that decision and spirit which had al- ways characterized him, volunteered. He enlisted as a private and was chosen second lieutenant in Captain James Hampton's company of the first Illinois regiment which enlisted for the war, and which was commanded by Colonel Edward B. Newby. The regiment was ordered to New Mexico, and as there were no railroads in those days in that region, the march there was long and fatiguing. But after having crossed the uninhabited and un- inhabitable desert, the column reached a more interesting region. The magnificent mountain scenery, the fertile valleys, the healing springs, the descendants of the Spanish conquerors in their pic- turesque costumes, the docile peons, and the wild THE BOY THE STUDENT THE SOLDIER. 5 4 1 Apache Indians, all made a powerful impression upon young Logan. But his military duties left him little time for observation. He had been de- tailed as quartermaster of his regiment, and it was no easy task to procure the necessary sup- plies, and on issuing them to secure the proper vouchers and receipts. But when the war was over, and the regiment returned home by the way of Fort Leavenworth, Quartermaster Logan's ac- counts were all found to be in perfect order. Sub- sequently they passed the careful scrutiny of the auditing officials at the Treasury Department, where they are now on file, balanced to a cent. CHAPTER II. THE STUDENT THE LAWYER THE LEGISLATOR. RETURNING home in October, 1848, young Logan commenced the study of law in the office of his uncle, Alexander M. Jen- kins, formerly Lieutenant-Governor of Illinois. Robust and weather-bronzed, the young veteran of New Mexico was the hero of his neighbor- hood, and he soon took the lead among the young men in their sports, while he entertained them with his reminiscences of army life and with many good stories which he had heard at the camp fires. His manner was dramatic, his com- mand of his features was wonderful, and his voice was exquisitely modulated. Soon after young Logan's return home, several valuable horses were stolen from the neighbor- hood by a member of an organized band of thieves who had come over from Missouri, where his comrades had hiding-places almost inaccessi- ble in the swamps. As these marauders were desperate characters and always went armed, there was some hesitation about following the thief, but young Logan, taking two young men with him, started in pursuit. The second day THE STUDENTLAWYERLEGISLATOR. CA-> afterward the pursuers returned, bringing the horses which had been stolen, but no one ever knew what had become of the thief. In November, 1849, ^ e was elected county clerk of Jackson County, and held the office a year, during which time, while discharging his duties in the most creditable manner, he pursued his legal studies. He also attended a course of law lectures at the University of Louisville, Ken- tucky, which was then regarded as the foremost institution of legal learning west of the Allegheny Mountains. Applying himself with his wonted industry and perseverance, he received his di- ploma in 1851. Admitted to the practice of the law, Mr. Logan entered into partnership with his uncle. Governor Jenkins was a legal bookworm, and would hunt up all the authorities bearing upon their clients' cases, which his young partner would use in the trial, examining the witnesses, and ad- dressing the jury in his forcible and convincing style of oratory. His practical mind, vigorous intellect, popular manners, and rare abilities as a public speaker won him a foremost place in pub- lic esteem, and in 1852 he was elected Prosecut- ing Attorney of the then Third Judicial Circuit of Illinois. In 1852, Mr. Logan removed to the town of Benton, where he continued his law practice, and very largely increased his circle of personal and political friends. At the fall election of 1851, he 544 GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN. was elected to represent Jackson and Bentort Counties in the Illinois State Legislature. He entered at once upon a successful legislative career, and was recognized as a young man of unusual pro'mise, alike formidable as a foe and valuable as a friend. Candid in his presentation of facts, logical in his mode of reasoning, and skillful in arousing emotion, he had few superiors as a popular speaker. Shaking off the trammels of routine, he was progressive and aggressive in opposing monopolies and in widening the paths of industry. Politically, he was an uncompromis- ing Democrat, always voting with his party. He was married on the 2;th of November, 1855, at Shawneetown, to Miss MaryS. Cunning- ham, daughter of John W. Cunningham, formerly Register of the United States Land Office at that place. She is the great-granddaughter of Rob- ert Cunningham, an Irish immigrant to Virginia, who fought for his adopted country in the Revo- lutionary War, after which he removed to Tennes- see, thence to Alabama, and thence to Illinois, at that time a territory, where he emancipated several slaves which he had previously acquired. Her father, Captain John M. Cunningham, served in the Black Hawk Indian War, and also in the war with Mexico, and was a member of the Legislature of Illinois in 1845 an d 1846. Her mother was Miss Elizabeth Fontaine, one of a family of French immigrants to Louisiana when under the rule of THE STUDENT LAWYER LEGISLATOR. France, but which had afterward ascended the Mississippi and located in Missouri, settling at Petersburg in Boone County. There she was married to John M. Cunningham, and their oldest child, Mary Simmerson, was born on the I5th of August, 1838. When she was but a year old, her parents crossed the Mississippi and settled at Marion, in Williamson County, Illinois, where she was reared amid the hardships and dangers of frontier life. When Captain Cunningham went to meet the hostile Indians in the northern part of his own State, and later to fight the battles of his country in the land of the Montezumas, his brave and dutiful little daughter relieved her mother all in her power in household duties, and stood by her nobly when the father again left home to seek a fortune in the golden streams of California. On his return he found that his daughter, though aid- ing her mother so largely, had acquired the rudi- ments of a good education, and he sent her to the Convent of St. Vincent, near Morganfield, Ken- tucky, which was the best and almost the only educational institution for young ladies in that region. Having been reared in the Baptist Church, she did not fancy the religious services of the Sis- ters, but nevertheless, she became a great favorite with them. Graduating in 1855, Miss Cunningham returned to her father's home at Shawneetown, where, in her younger days, she had aided her father in pre- GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN. paring his papers as Sheriff of the county, Clerk of the Courts, and Register of the Land Office. Blank forms for legal documents were almost unknown in those days, and the daughter used to write the papers required by her father in his official duties. John Logan was at that time Prosecuting Attorney of the district, and he naturally became well acquainted with Captain Cunningham and his daughter. When she returned from the convent he wooed and won her, and the young couple com- menced their married life at Benton, Illinois. Since then she has been his devoted helpmeet. She is a brilliant and thoroughly educated woman, with great simplicity of manner, earnestness of convic- tion, and remarkable magnetic power. She has always entered heartily into every project of her husband, and, as became a devoted wife, has re- joiced in his success at the bar, in the army, and in political life. Though naturally of a retiring disposition, she possesses great spirit and determi- nation, which has shone resplendent in many times of trial and emergency. In 1856, Mr. Logan was chosen Presidential elector on the Democratic ticket, for the Ninth Congressional District of Illinois, and cast his vote in favor of James Buchanan for President, and John C. Breckinridge for Vice-President. He was re-elected to the State Legislature in the fall of that year, and again in 1857. MRS. SENATOR JOHN A. LOGAN. CHAPTER III. REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS WASHINGTON. IN the fall of 1858, when the famous contest between Lincoln and Douglas politically con- vulsed the State, Mr. Logan was elected a Representative in Congress from the Ninth Con- gressional District of Illinois. A large number of the old-line Whigs voted for him, and he received 15,878 votes against 2,796 votes for D. L. Phil- lips, the Republican candidate, and 144 votes scattering. Mrs. Logan, who had taken a deep interest in his campaign, accompanied her hus- band to Washington, where they lived in the modest way from which they have never departed. In the long contest for Speaker, at the commence- ment of the session, he came prominently to the front as the defender of Stephen A. Douglas against personal attacks, and when questioned concerning his political views, he said : " I will answer the gentleman's question. I am now about twenty-eight years of age. I was born a Democrat ; and all my life I have learned to be- lieve that the Democratic party, in national con- vention, never does wrong. I have buried past issues. I have done with them. Ignoring them, 549 550 GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN. I say that I am a Democrat without a prefix to my name. I am for Stephen A. Douglas for the next President of the United States first, last, and all the time. If he is not nominated, I am for the next man that is, sir, the man who is nominated." He was in favor of supporting the Constitution and of carrying put its guarantees, "as," to use his own words " every man will do who is a patriot, a good citizen, a law-abiding and a Constitution-lovinor man." o Mr. Pennington (who had been substituted by the Republicans for Mr. John Sherman) was elected Speaker on the forty-fourth ballot, and after two months of earnest struggle. Mr. Logan voted for the Democratic candidate, except on the thirty-ninth ballot, when he voted for Mr. Smith, of North Carolina. In giving his reasons for this vote, he said : " I do not make any remarks for the purpose of justifying myself be- fore my constituents, because I do not believe they would call in question any vote that I may give here in accordance with the will of the large majority of the Democratic party of this House. I represent upon this floor, perhaps, as large a constituency as any man here. I came here with a Democratic majority of about fourteen thou- sand votes over a Republican opposition. I have never in my life given any other than a Demo- cratic vote. In the district I have the honor to represent there is an element now assisting the REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS. * ~ l Democratic party in sustaining the Union and the Constitution I allude to the old-line Whigs." Mr. Logan was appointed Chairman of the Committee on " Revised and Unfinished Busi- ness," which was the only committee entirely com- posed of Democrats. He soon displayed his executive ability and industrious habits. He was always present at the sessions of the House, and the business of his constituents at the Depart- ment was always promptly attended to, thus in- creasing his hold upon their esteem. Old party lines were being broken up, but Mr. Logan ad- hered with unbroken tenacity to the doctrines of Jefferson and Jackson, as then interpreted by the Democratic party. When a bill was reported from the Committee on the Judiciary to punish and prevent the practice of polygamy in Utah, Mr. Logan offered as a substitute a bill repealing the act creating that Territory and establishing in its stead the Territories of Jeffersonia and Nevada. Many thought then and think now that this would have broken up effectually the sway of polygamy. Amid the greatest political excitement, Mr. Logan was ever attentive to the wants of his con- stituents. He secured the passage of a bill for the holding of Circuit and District Courts of the United States for the Southern District of Illinois, in the city of Cairo, thus avoiding the necessity for jurors, lawyers, litigants, and witnesses there- 552 <// -A l-.RAL JOHN A. LOGAN. abouts to journey some two hundred miles to Springfield. He also sought a confirmation to the titles of some eighteen hundred acres of saline lands which individuals had purchased of the State in good faith, but the record of the sale of which had been destroyed, and he urged the passage of other acts calculated to benefit the State of Illinois. When evening sessions were asked for he said that if they were simply for the purpose of allow- ing gentlemen to read written speeches, he had no objections, but he desired to take the floor when the report of the Peace Committee was dis- cussed. He had no written speech he never wrote one he did not want to speak at night to empty benches and he hoped the House would not force him to. When he obtained the floor he spoke earnestly for an hour on the state of the Union, as seen from his Democratic standpoint, and deprecated war, discussing the best way in which to "restore tranquillity and to bring the American people once more together in the bonds of amity and peace." He wanted to have the people of the South, who had been dragged into the whirlpool of disunion by reckless and ambi- tious men, return on bended knees, exclaiming: "I come once more to the parental roof for pro- tection," and he said: "I have been taught to be- lieve that the preservation of this glorious Union, with its broad flag waving over us as the shield for REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS. c c -> 55o our protection on land and on sea, is paramount to all the parties and platforms that ever have existed or ever can exist. I would to-day, if I had the power, sink my own party and every other one, with all their platforms, into the vortex of ruin, without heaving a sigh or shedding a tear, to save the Union or even stop the revolution where it is." In conclusion, Mr. Logan said: "Sir, what shall I say to my gallant constituents when I return to them? Shall I bear the ill tidings that nothing has been done in Congress to give them a ray of hope for the future of our country ? Must I tell those gallant Tennesseeans, Kentuckians, and men from different Southern States, that ere long, if they should desire to visit the soil of their nativity, they must be prepared to visit a foreign and perhaps a hostile government ? Shall I say to the sons of gallant old Virginia, the mother of our own State, that it is highly probable that very soon, if they want to visit the soil where their fathers and mothers, the man who wrote the Dec- laration of Independence, the one who drafted the Constitution, and the one who, with our poor and half-starved armies, drove the British from our land, signed the Constitution, and was our first President, all lie buried that they will at some future day have the opportunity, with a pass- port in their pockets, or, in certain events, they can do so with a torch in one hand and a sword in the other ? No, no ! Let me not bear this sad ec, GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN. intelligence. In the name of the patriotic sires who breasted the storms and vicissitudes of the Revolution; by all the kindred ties of this country ; in the name of the many battles fought for our freedom ; in behalf of the young and the old ; in behalf of the arts and sciences, civilization, peace, order, Christianity, and humanity, I appeal to you to strike from your limbs the chains that bind them ; come forth from that loathsome prison, (party caucus) and in tliis hour, the most gloomy and disheartening to the lovers of free institutions that has ever existed during our country's history, arouse the drooping spirits of our countrymen by putting forth your good strong arms to assist in steadying the rocking pillars of the mightiest Re- public that has ever had an existence." CHAPTER IV. STORMY SCENES IN CONGRESS HOSTILITIES COM- MENCED. IN 1860, Mr. Logan's constituents were so well pleased with their Representative that they re- elected him to the Thirty-seventh Congress, giving him 21,381 votes against 5,439 for Linegar, Republican. In that political campaign he con- tinued to give his ardent support to Stephen A. Douglas. That winter, the Legislature having re- districted the State, he removed his residence to Marion, Williamson County, in order that he might still remain in his proper Congressional lo- cality. Before leaving his old home he expressed his regret that Mr. Douglas had not been made President rather than Mr. Lincoln, but he declared that the latter having been elected, he " would shoulder his musket to have him inaugurated if any armed demonstration should be made." On reaching Washington to be present at the opening of the last session of the Thirty-sixth Congress, in December, 1860, Mr. Logan saw many of the Southern Senators and Representa- tives secede from the Congress of the United States, while a few others, truculent and defiant, 555 GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN. remained to place every obstacle in the way of coercion by the Federal Government. Mr. Logan repeatedly arraigned them for their ill-concealed disloyalty, and asked them how they reconciled their hostility to the Government with the oaths which they had taken to support the Constitution. Attending the special session of the Thirty- seventh Congress, called by Mr. Lincoln, which met on the Fourth of July, 1861, Mr. Logan saw the war-clouds gathering in every direction. The National Metropolis resounded with the beating of drums and the clang of arms as patriotic men came hastening from all sections of the loyal North to its defense, while the Confederates, hav- ing seized many forts and arsenals of the United States, were concentrating a large armed force on the south bank of the Potomac. The Republi- cans, of course, sustained the Administration, and the Democrats, rising above party trammels, in- dorsed the declaration of President Lincoln that there were "wrongs to be redressed, already long enough endured." Those who had been the dis- o ciples of that great General who had declared that " the Federal Union must and shall be pre- served," did not choose to endure those wrongs any longer. Mr. Logan, alive to the gravity and the dangers of the situation, turned from the Democratic party toward the Republicans as the defenders and preservers of the Union, and when he turned, it was without a qualification. STORMY SCENES IN CONGRESS. Before the close of the session, Mr. Adrian, of New Jersey, offered the following resolution in the House of Representatives: "Resolved, That we fully approve of the bold and patriotic act of Major Anderson in withdrawing from Fort Moul- trie to Fort Sumter, and of the determination of the President to maintain that fearless officer in his present position; and that we will support the President in all constitutional measures to enforce the laws and preserve the Union." Upon the passage of this resolution Mr. Logan voted "aye," and added that "it received his unqualified sup- port." Years afterward, when slanderers had undertaken to cast doubts upon his loyalty at this critical period, Senators L. Q. C. Lamar and Pugh bore unsolicited testimony to his loyalty of deed, thought, and purpose. "On to Richmond!" now became the popular cry, and on the i6th of July the Union army crossed the Potomac. On the i8th, General McDowell sent forward three columns to make reconnoisances of the enemy's entrenched position on the south bank of Bull Run. One of these columns, commanded by Brigadier-General Tyler, after encountering obstructions, reached Bull Run, at Blackburn's Ford, and found a Confederate battery on the opposite bank. After some ex- changes of shots by the artillery, Colonel Rich- ardson, who commanded a brigade, was ordered forward to reconnoitre, and he threw out a c e g GENERAL J OlfN A. L OGAM regiment as skirmishers into the thick woods which bordered the creek. The Confederates opened a raking fire of artillery and musketry upon them, and a lively fusilade ensued, which resulted in the retreat of the skirmishing regi- ment. Colonel Richardson reported this to Gen- eral Tyler, and proposed to make a charge with the remaining three regiments of the brigade for ^j ^? <j the purpose of carrying the enemy's position. General Tyler sent back word that the Confed- erates were in large force and strongly fortified, and that a further attack was unnecessary. It was, he said, merely a reconnoissance, and the strength of the enemy having been ascertained, Colonel Richardson would fall back with his com- mand, an order which was reluctantly complied with. General Anson G. McCook, who was in the supporting brigade commanded by General Schenck, as a captain of the Second Ohio Volun- teers, narrates an episode which occurred just as Colonel Richardson's skirmish line was recalled. He saw, slowly coming back from the front, two civilians, who attracted his attention. One he re- cognized as his uncle, Daniel McCook, of Illinois, and the other, who wore a high silk hat and carried a musket on his shoulder, had gleaming black eyes and a heavy moustache. His hands and clothes were covered with blood, for he had been helping to carry wounded men out of range, HOSTILITIES COMMENCED. tfa and he was using decidedly energetic language in condemnation of the recall of the troops. It was Mr. Logan, who had gone out on the ad- vanced picket line with Colonel Richardson, and who was emphatic in his assertions that the re- served regiments should have been ordered for- ward into the fight. Two days afterward, General McDowell, hav- ing found that the enemy's works commanding the fords could not be carried by assault without a great loss, concentrated his forces at Centre- ville, and advanced by the flank around the fords to attack the Confederates at Manassas. The advancing columns of Union soldiers, with glisten- ing bayonets, gay flags, and bands performing patriotic airs, moved through the primeval forests of the Old Dominion. They were accompanied by a crowd of spectators, who had driven out from Washington to witness the fight, as they would have gone to witness a horse-race or a game at base-ball. The Union officers, smarting under the insinuations of politicians that they dared not fight, gallantly led their undisciplined commands into the range of the enemy's guns, where they fought like veterans. At first it was thought that victory had perched on the Union flags, but the decimated Confederate regiments received fresh courage from the arrival of reinforcements, and the tide of battle was turned in their favor. A retreat was ordered, which soon become a dis- 562 GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN graceful rout, and it was impossible to control men who had lost all presence of mind and only longed for absence of body. The Confederates were in no condition to fol- low up the victory which they had gained and to press on to Washington, and the defeat secured the support of every loyal man in the Northern States for the Union cause whatever his previous political convictions might have been. Practical issues were presented, and there was no time for hesitation or indecision. Thenceforth -Mr. Logan was animated by the sentiment uttered by his deceased political leader, Stephen A. Douglas, in his last public speech : "The conspiracy is now known, armies have been raised, war is levied to accomplish it. There are only two sides to the question. Every man must be for the United States or against it. There can be no neutrals in this war ; only Republicans or traitors." Believing this, Mr. Logan wrote to his relatives and friends in Illinois, telling them that there were but two sides to the question, and that he intended to take up arms for the Union. CHAPTER V. THE COLONEL BELMONT FORT HENRY FORT DONELSON. CONGRESS adjourned on the 6th day of August, and Mr. Logan, hastening to Illi- nois, obtained the recruiting papers for the Thirty-first Regiment of Volunteers, which he proceeded to raise in the immediate neighborhood of his home, having first enlisted as a private him- self. Attempts had been made there to induce the young men to enter the Confederate ser- vice, and a few of them had crossed the Ohio and enlisted in the Thirteenth Tennessee Con- federate Regiment. Mr. Logan's appearance turned the scale. On the 3d of September he addressed a public meeting at Marion, announcing his intention to enter the Union service as a private, or in any capacity in which he could serve his coun- try best in defending the old blood-stained flag over every foot of soil in the United States. His elo- quence and high personal reputation rallied friends and neighbors around him, and on the I3th of November, 1861, the Thirty-first Regiment of Illinois Volunteers was organized, and he was chosen and commissioned as its colonel. 563 564 GENERAL yO/M A. LOG AM The newly organized regiment was ordered to report at the rendezvous at Cairo, which had been placed under the command of Brigadier-General Grant, who had gone there as the colonel of the Twenty-first Regiment of Illinois, and had been promoted. The first brigade which he organized was composed of the Twenty-seventh, Twenty- ninth, Thirtieth and Thirty-first Regiments, which he placed under the command of General Mc- Clernand, who, like Colonel Logan, had been identified with the Democratic party. Mrs. Logan accompanied her husband. On the night of November 6th, McClernand's brigade left Cairo, on a steamer, as part of an expedition which General Grant commanded, to assault the Confederates' works at Belmont, on the Mississippi River. Few of the officers or men had ever before seen a battle, the regiments were imperfectly disciplined and drilled, and the mus- kets were of an inferior character. Yet the expe- dition started boldly out, and passing the intrench- ments at Belmont, landed above them on the 7th, and moved through dense woods to their rear. The ground was hotly contested, but after two miles of continuous fighting, the Confederates were forced to seek shelter in their camp. General Grant's forces drove them from that position, destroyed the camp, and returning to their boats, brought away two hundred prisoners, two field pieces, and a large quantity of munitions of war. B ELMO NT FOR T HENR K r 5 r Colonel Logan distinguished himself in the action by ordering his flag to the front, and leading his regiment with unbroken ranks, followed by the whole force. He had his horse shot from under him, and a ball shattered the revolver which he carried at his side, yet he escaped unhurt. Mrs. Logan, who was 'in the camp at Cairo, heard the roar of artillery at Belmont, and while anxious for her husband, gave her personal attention to the wounded as they were brought back, ministering to their wants with assiduous care. In February, 1862, Brigadier-General Grant again left Cairo at the head of a considerable force for hostile demonstrations on the Tennessee River, in concert with a fleet of gunboats commanded by Flag-officer Foote. Fort Henry was captured on the 6th of February, Colonel Logan taking part in the investment by land, and capturing eight of the enemy's guns. He made several reconnois- sances around Fort Donelson before the arrival of the Union troops there, and took an active part in the three days siege, in command of his regi- ment. When the enemy made a vigorous attack on the Fifteenth, upon the right wing, to which the Thirty-first Regiment belonged, the ammunition of the men became nearly exhausted, and while Colonel Logan and Lieutenant-Colonel White w r ere rallying them the latter fell, mortally wounded. Colonel Logan, at the same time, re- GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN. ceived a musket-ball, which entered the fore part of his left arm, passed around it, and out through the shoulder. He was also struck in the hip by two spent balls ; but he never flinched, and his in- trepidity kept his men in position until reinforce- ments arrived. He was then forced to go to the rear and have his wounds dressed, his men being fearful of the results, as loss of blood had nearly exhausted him. The battle lasted until dark, and the next morning General Buckner, the Confed- erate commander, sent in a flag of truce proposing an armistice and the appointment of commission- ers to settle terms of capitulation. General Grant's reply was characteristic : " No terms other than unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted," and he added : " I propose to move immediately on your works." The " Stars and Bars" which had floated over Fort Donelson were at once lowered, and the "Stars and Stripes " floated proudly in their place. It was this engagement, in which the First Illi- nois Brigade held its ground for three long hours, during which time nearly one-third were either killed or wounded, that a Massachusetts poet described, saying : " Thy proudest mother's eyelids fill, As dares her gallant boy, And Plymouth Rock and Bunker Hill Yearn to thee Illinois." Colonel Logan was taken with his regiment INTERIOR OF FORT HENRY. WATER BATTERY AT FORT DONELSON. FORT DONELSON. back to Cairo, prostrated by his wounds and by malarial fever contracted by exposure, and for three weeks he lay at death's door. Yet he re- fused to be taken from his decimated and suf- fering regiment, and insisted on remaining with his " boys " until they had somewhat recuperated. Mrs. Logan, who had gone to her father's house at Marion when her husband started on the Ten- nessee River campaign, hastened back to Cairo to minister to his wants. For several days he was in a very critical condition, but she had the satisfaction of seeing her devoted care rewarded by his convalescence. Colonel Logan's bravery at the battle of Fort Donelson was honorably mentioned by his com- manding officers, and General Grant recom- mended him to the Secretary of War as deserving advancement for meritorious services. He was one of four colonels recommended for promotion, General Grant saying: " He is from civil pursuits, but I have no hesitation in fully indorsing him as in every way qualified for the position of briga- dier-general." President Lincoln so appointed him, and the nomination was confirmed by the Senate on the 5th day of March, 1862. CHAPTER VI. BRIGADIER-GENERAL CORINTH JACKSON THE PATRIOT. GENERAL LOGAN was offered "sick leave," but he declined and reported to General Grant (who had meanwhile been promoted to the rank of major-general), and was, on the 1 2th of April, 1862, placed in command of the brigade in which he had served under Mc- Clernand and Oglesby, excepting that the Twelfth Michigan was substituted for his own regiment, which had been placed under the command of his quartermaster, Lindorf Ozburn. For a few days General Logan was prevented by ill health from assuming the command of his brigade, but the closing scenes of the battle of Corinth found him in the saddle in command of the picket-line. Two nights before the Confed- erates evacuated their works while his men were laying on their arms ready to meet an attack should one be made, he became impressed with the idea that a retreat had been commenced and wanted to advance, but was refused authority to do so. The next afternoon the enemy made a desperate sortie in force on the picket-line. " In this attack," said 570 BRIGADIER- GENERAL CORINTH JA CKSON. r y j General Logan in his official report, "the men again exhibited that true Western courage which has characterized them in so many engagements, and maintained their position like veteran soldiers. After receiving thefireof the enemytheyreturnedit with great vigor, and immediately advanced, under command of Captains Lieb and Cowen, of the Eighth and Forty-fifth Regiments respectively, and fought the enemy, of three times their number, alone. On the next morning I received official notice of the evacuation of Corinth, and that the American flag, as it waved over the rebel fortifications, was greeted by the thundering shouts of our soldiery." General Sherman, in his official report, acknowl- edged his special obligations to General Logan, who "held the critical ground on the right, extend- ing down to the railroad. All the time he had in his front a large force of the enemy, but so dense was the foliage that he could not reckon their strength, save what he could see on the railroad track." General Logan was ordered, after the capitula- tion of Corinth, to command a division sent to oc- cupy and rebuild the railroad leading to Jackson, Tennessee, which was an important depot of sup- plies. Advancing with all possible rapidity, a de- tachment from his division seized Jackson on the yth of June, 1862, while the Confederates were taking dinner, and put them to flight, capturing a number of animals and a quantity of commissary GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN. and quartermaster's stores. General Logan was placed in command at Jackson, which was an im- portant position, requiring great administrative abilities. From there, under date of August 26th, he addressed the following patriotic letter to the Hon. O. M. Hatch, Secretary of State, which was read at the Illinois Union Convention, in Septem- ber, 1862 : "I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your complimentary letter of the i8th inst, ask- ing permission to use my name in connection with that of the Fourteenth Representative in Con- gress from the State of Illinois. " In reply, I would most respectfully remind you that a compliance with your request on my part would be a departure from the settled resolutions with which I resumed my sword in defense and for the perpetuity of a Government the like and blessings of which no other nation or age shall enjoy if once suffered to be weakened or de- stroyed. In making this reply, I feel that it is un- necessary to enlarge as to what were, are, or may hereafter be my political views, but would simply state that politics of every grade and character whatsoever are now ignored by me, since I am convinced that the Constitution and life of this Republic which I shall never cease to adore are in danger. " I express all my views and politics when I as- sert my attachment for the Union. I have no BRIGADIER- GENERAL CORINTH JACKSON, r 7 -> other politics now, and consequently no aspira- tions for civil place and power. No ! I am to-day a soldier of this Republic, so to remain, changeless and immutable until her last and weakest enemy shall have expired and passed away. Ambitious men, who have not a true love for their country at heart, may bring forth crude and bootless ques- tions to agitate the pulse of our troubled nation and thwart the preservation of this Union, but for none of such am I. I have entered the field to die if needs be for this Government, and never expect to return to peaceful pursuits until the ob- ject of this war has become a fact established. " Whatever means it may be necessary to adopt, whatever local interest it may affect or destroy, is no longer an affair of mine. If any locality or section suffers or is wronged in the prosecution of the war, I am sorry for it, but I say it must not be heeded now, for we are at war for the preser- vation of the Union. Let the evil be rectified when the present breach has been cemented for- ever. If the South by her malignant treachery has imperiled all that made her great and wealthy, and it was to be lost, I would not stretch forth my hand to save her from destruction, if she will not be saved by a restoration of the Union. Since the die of her wretchedness has been cast by her own hands, let the coin of her misery circulate alone in her own dominions, until the peace of Union ameliorates her forlorn condition. GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN. " By these few words you may readily discern that my political aspirations are things of the past, and I am not the character of man you seek. No legislation in which I might be suffered to take a feeble part, will in my .opinion suffice to amend the injury already inflicted upon our country by these remorseless traitors. Their policy for the dissolution of the Government was initiated in blood, and their seditious blood only can suffice to make amends for the evil done. This Govern- ment must be preserved for future generations in the same mold in which it was transmitted to us if it takes the last man and the last dollar of the present generation within its borders to accom- plish it. " For the flattering manner in which you have seen fit to allude to my past services I return you my sincere thanks, but if it has been my fortune to bleed and suffer for my dear country, it is all but too little compared to what I am willing again and again to endure ; and should fate so ordain it, I will esteem it as the highest privilege a just Dispenser can award to shed the last drop of blood in my veins for the honor of that flag whose emblems are justice, liberty, and truth, and which has been, and as I humbly trust in God ever will be, for the right. "In conclusion, let me request that your desire to associate my name with the high and honorable position you would confer upon me be at once BRIGADIER- GENERAL CORINTH JA CKSON. 1 7 e dismissed, and some more suitable and worthy person substituted. Meanwhile I shall continue to look with unfeigned pride and admiration on the continuance of the present able conduct of our State affairs, and feel that I am sufficiently honored while acknowledged as an humble sol- dier of our own peerless State." CHAPTER VII. MAJOR-GENERAL VICKSBURG THE ORATOR. DURING Grant's Northern Mississippi Campaign of 1862 and 1863, Logan led his division, exhibiting great skill in the handling of troops, and was honored with promo- tion as major-general of volunteers, dating from November 29th, 1862. He was afterward as- signed to the command of the Third Division, Seventeenth Army Corps, under General McPher- son, and bore a distinguished part in the series of battles which followed each other in rapid succes- sion prior to the final investment of Vicksburg. At the battle of Raymond, on the 1 2th of May, there was a desperate conflict, in which the Illi- nois troops fought valiantly and lost heavily, but the Confederates were finally forced, at the point of the bayonet, to retreat. " General Logan," says the Rev. Dr. Eddy, in his Military History of Illi- nois, " to whose division belongs the honor of the victory, was full of zeal and wild with enthusiasm. Fearless as a lion, he was in every part of the field, and seemed to infuse every man of his command with a part of his own indomitable energy and fiery valor." 576 'MAJOR-GENERAL VICKSBURG THE ORATOR. Equally glorious and decisive was the battle of Jackson on the following morning, when, after an artillery duel of half an hour, without any marked results, the infantry was ordered into action. A mile of open space lay between the Union army and the Confederates, every foot of which was swept by the fire of artillery. But the Illinois troops steadily advanced in spite of the fearful storm of shot and shell which swept through their ranks. They halted for a few moments under cover of a hill-side. Their officers briefly ad- dressed them, and then gave the word "Forward !" Onward the column flew on the double quick, their cheers ringing high above the din of musk- etry. They had hardly struck the rebel front before it was shivered. A long, loud cheer of victory swelled on the air as the foe fled, panic- stricken, from the field, and yielded the city of Jackson as the prize of battle. During the fight, an officer was sent to General Logan to. inquire how the contest was going in his front. Logan sent back word : " Tell General Grant that my division cannot be whipped by all the rebels this side of hell. We are going ahead, and won't stop till we get orders." On the 1 6th, at the battle of Champion Hills, General Logan's splendid division, as usual, im- mortalized itself. At the commencement of the battle he marched past the brow of the hill, and forming in line of battle on the right of Hovey, 578 GENERAL JOHN A, LOGAN. advanced in magnificent style, sweeping every- thing before him. At the edge of the woods in front of Logan the battle was of the most des- perate character, but not a man flinched or a line wavered in his division. They bore themselves like veterans, and moved on as if conscious of their invincibility and the certainty of victory. General Logan captured eleven guns and thirteen hundred prisoners. The correspondent of the Cincinnati Commercial, in his published account of this engagement said : " General Logan was, as usual, full of zeal, and intoxicated with enthu- siasm. His horse was shot twice. If you ever hear that Logan has been defeated, make up your mind that he and most of his men have been sac- rificed. He has stricken the word ' retreat' from his military lexicon. Fighting his way forward, the Union columns made the investment of Vicks- burg secure, having displayed unflinching endur- ance, cjaring bravery, and determined energy. The siege operations were carried on with equal gallantry, and on the Fourth of July, 1863, Vicks- burg capitulated. The Confederates marched out of the city, stacked their arms in front of the Union line, and then marched back as prisoners to be paroled. When this had been done, Gen- eral McPherson and staff rode into the city and took formal possession, displaying the ' Stars and Stripes' from the cupola of the Court-House. At high-noon the Union army marched into the city, BATTLE GROUND, NE\R JACKSON, MISS. CAVE LIFE IN VICKSBURG DURING ITS SIEGE. MAJOR-GENERAL V1CKSBURG THE ORATOR, rg! headed by General Grant. Next to him came General Logan's division, which passed High Hill Fort, where they had recently fought desper- ately, after the explosion of a mine. The Gen- eral rode at their head, 'worshiped by his men -a. man of iron will and lion-like courage, who seemed under the blasts of war to change into a demi-god.' ' General Logan was appointed Mi4itary Gover- nor of Vicksburg, a fitting tribute to his wonder- ful earnestness and gallantry during the siege. Thirteen thousand prisoners were paroled, thou- sands of men of both armies in hospitals had to be cared for, and many of the citizens were abso- lutely without food. There was also a large quantity of surrendered arms and munitions of war to be secured. General Logan proved himself to be " the right man in the right place," bringing order out of chaos, restraining disorder, and treat- ing the conquered with impartial justice. General Logan's valor was fitly recognized in the presentation made to him, by the Board of Honor of the Seventeenth Army Corps, of a gold medal inscribed with the names of the nine battles in which he had participated. Having thoroughly inaugurated the administration of affairs at Vicks- burg, he spent a part of the summer of 1863 in a visit to the North, frequently addressing large assemblages of his fellow-citizens in speeches of fiery eloquence and burning zeal and devotion eg 2 GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN. ' to the cause of the Union. As a specimen of those speeches the following extract from one delivered at Duquoin, Illinois, may be quoted : " The Government is worth fighting for. It is worth generations and centuries of war. It is worth the lives of the best and noblest men in the land. We will fight for this Government for the sake of ourselves and our children. Our little ones shall read in history of the men who stood by the Government in its dark and gloomy hours, and it shall be the proud boast of many that their fathers died in this glorious struggle for American liberty. I believe to-day I believe it honestly that if the people of the North were united and all stood upon one platform, as we do in the army, this rebellion would be crushed in ninety days. I want to show you the reason why more troops ought to be raised. We can crush this rebellion. I know it. Why, we have marched a little army clear from Cairo to Vicksburg; below, a small one has marched from New Orleans to Port Hudson. We have opened the Mississippi River. We have split the Confederacy in two, leaving on one side Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Missouri more territory than is on the east- ern side. We have made a gulf that is impassa- ble for them. We can hurl our strength upon one half and whip it, then upon the other and whip that." CHAPTER VIII. CORPS COMMANDER KENESAW -PEACH TREE CREEK. ON the 1 3th day of November, 1863, Gen- eral Logan was promoted to the command of the Fifteenth Army Corps as the suc- cessor of General Sherman. In surrendering command of his division he reminded the officers and soldiers of the different brigades of the his- o tory the division " had made for itself a history to be proud of; a history never to be forgotten; for it is written as with a pen of fire dipped in ink of blood on the memories and in the hearts of all." He besought them always to prove themselves as loyal in principle, as valiant in arms, as their record while under his command would show them to have been ; " to remember the glorious cause you are fighting for, remember the bleaching bones of your comrades, killed on the bloody fields of Donelson, Corinth, Champion Hill, and Vicksburg, or perished by disease dur- ing the past two years of hardships and exposure and swear by these imperishable memories never, while life remains, to prove recreant to the trust high Heaven has confided to your charge." 583 GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN. He assured them of his continued sympathy and interest in their well-being, no matter how great a distance might separate them, and closed by heartily recommending them to their future com- mander, his own companion-in-arms and succes- sor, Brigadier-General Leggett. The Fifteenth Corps, after General Logan was promoted to its command, was stationed during the winter in the vicinity of Huntsville, Alabama. In the spring the Fifteenth Corps, with the Six- teenth Corps, Major-General G. M. Dodge, and the Seventeenth Corps, Major-General Frank P. Blair, which formed the " Army of the Tennes- see," commanded by. Major-General McPherson, joined the " Army of the Cumberland," com- manded by Major-General Thomas, and the " Army of the Ohio," commanded by Major-Gen- eral Schofield. These three armies, with an ag- gregate strength of 98,739 men and 254 guns, formed the " Grand Military Division of the Mis- sissippi," commanded by General Sherman " one of the grandest armies ever led by gallant chief- lain." The whole force was consolidated at Ring- gold early in May, and started southward on its march into Georgia. o General Logan, at the head of the Fourteenth Army Corps, was in the van, as General Sher- man fought his way over difficult ground. Gen- eral H. V. Boynton, who served gallantly in the Army of the Cumberland, says of him: " As the CORPS COMMANDER PEACH TREE CREEK. united armies advanced along a battle line, where for four months the firing never wholly ceased by day or by night, everybody came to know Logan. Brave, vigilant, and aggressive, he won universal applause. Prudent for his men, and reckless in exposing his own person, he excited general ad- miration. When the lines were close his own headquarters were often scarcely out of sight of the pickets, and he generally had a hand in what- ever deadly work might spring up along his front." Leading the advance, General Logan had a bloody conflict with Hardee's veteran Confederates at Dallas, and after twelve days of successful skir- mishing, halted before Kenesaw Mountain, on which the Confederates were strongly entrenched. General Sherman, finding that he was expected to outflank this stronghold, determined, "for the moral effect," to carry it by assault, as in his opinion "an army to be efficient must not settle down to one mode of offense, but must be prepared to exe- cute any plan which promises success." General Logan, who was with General McPherson at Gen- eral Sherman's headquarters when this disastrous assault was decided upon, and who was always averse to the unnecessary exposure of his men, protested. "At first," says General Boynton, "he scarcely believed that the intention to make the assault was earnest. When he discovered that it was really contemplated, he emphasized his pro- test, coupling it with the opinion that to send the GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN. troops against that mountain would only result in useless slaughter. Finding his opinion likely to be disregarded, he went still further and declared it to be a movement which, in his judgment, would be nothing less than the murder of brave men. In all of this he was warmly seconded by General McPherson. They did not succeed in averting the slaughter. But afterward, when officers of the Army of the Cumberland heard that General Thomas' protest in regard to the same matter had been in similar terms to that of Logan, a stronger liking than ever for Logan prevailed among those officers of the Cumberland Army who knew the facts. Thus he ever sought to protect his men whenever he saw that they were likely to be need- lessly exposed. General Logan nevertheless obeyed orders. Early on the morning of the 2 7th of June he formed his corps in storming columns, led it againstthe first line of rebel abattis through a terrific fire of mus- ketry, and carried it. Then he advanced on the second line, carrying that also, but beyond it the mountain side was so steep, and the entrench- ments were so strong, that, having lost many valu- able lives, he was forced to fall back to the second line, where they threw up defenses of logs, which they held despite the stubbornest efforts of the Confederates to dislodge them. o An eye-witness, describing General Logan as he made an inspection of his lines, dwelt thus on his CORPS COMMANDER PEACH TREE CREEK, eg 7 remarkable courage and coolness under fire: "The Confederate gunners, seeing him, turned against him every battery on the mountain, which smoked like a volcano in eruption, sending forth a hurri- cane of missiles, some of which plowed up the earth, while others, bursting, filled the air with flying fragments. The General, riding into this mael- strom of shot and shell, halted by the embers of a nearly extinguished camp-fire, turned coolly around, and asked his aid-de-camp for a cigar. Procuring one, the General dismounted, and leisurely picked up a brand, lit his cigar, and then remounted, puf- fing away as nonchalantly as though he had been in his Illinois home as he rode alonof, while shells o * and shrapnel were screaming and bursting all around him." With his coolness General Loofan o combined that dashing abandon that quails before nothing that will and energy and daring can ac- complish resistless, vigilant, quick thoughted, and energetic. The Confederates, retreating from Kenesaw Mountain, fell back upon Atlanta, followed by the Union troops. After some days' skirmishing, the Army of the Tennessee came in sight of Atlanta, and without the knowledge of General Sherman was attacked by the Confederates with a heavy force after it had crossed Peach Tree Creek. Soon after the battle commenced, General Logan, fighting at one moment on one side of his works and the next moment on the other, was informed -38 GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN. of the death, in another part of the field, of the beloved General McPherson. Assuming tempo- rary command, General Logan rode up and down his lines, bareheaded, his long black hair stream- ing in the wind, his service-worn slouch hat swing- ing in his bridle hand, and his sword flashing in the other, shouting : " Boys ! McPherson and re- venge !" His daring bravery, amid showers of whistling bullets and screeching shells, inspired the troops, who seven successive times met and repulsed that number of assaults. Eight thousand rebel dead left upon the field at nightfall bore mute witness to their love for their fallen chief and the bravery of his successor. General Sherman, in his official report of the battle, after mentioning the death of General McPherson, said: "His sudden death devolved the command of the Army of the Tennessee on the no less brave and gallant General Logan, who nobly sustained his reputation and that of his veteran army, and avenged the death of his com- rade and commander." CHAPTER IX. THE VOLUNTEER EZRA CHAPEL THE CHAMPION OF THE UNION. GENERAL LOGAN was justly entitled to the command of the Army of the Ten- nessee after the death of General Mc- Pherson, but West Point influence induced General Sherman to recommend instead General O. O. Howard. General Hooker (who had hardly been mentioned in connection with the position) was so angry because he had not re- ceived it that he asked to be relieved from duty, not wishing to serve under General Howard. But General Logan quietly resumed the command of the Fourteenth Corps, endeared to him by rec- ollections of many a hard-fought field. This showed his genuine .loyalty, his unselfish patriot- ism, and his desire to magnanimously give his whole energy and strength to the Union cause wherever he might be placed, without indulging in arrogant pretensions. Resuming command of the Fourteenth Corps, General Logan was engaged on the 29th of July at Ezra Chapel in a sharp fight, which General Howard left to his direction. The losses on both GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN. sides were heavy, but after repeated assaults the Confederates retreated, leaving five battle flags, two thousand muskets, and two hundred prison- ers, some of them badly wounded. General How- ard, in transmitting General Logan's report, added: " I wish to express my high gratification with the conduct of the troops engaged. I never saw bet- ter conduct in battle. General Logan, though ill and much worn out, was indefatigable, and the success of the day is as much attributable to him as to any one man." On the 2d of September, Atlanta, " the gate city from the North and West to the Southeast," was occupied by the Union troops, who soon after- ward went into summer quarters for rest and re- organization. General Logan, in an order reviewing the campaign, said to his command : " You have marched during the campaign, in your windings, the distance of four hundred miles ; have put hors de combat more of the enemy than your corps numbers ; have captured twelve stands of arms, two thousand four hundred and fifty prisoners, and two hundred and ten deserters. The course of your march is marked by the graves of patriotic heroes who have fallen by your side ; but, at the same time, it is more plainly marked by the blood of traitors who have defied the Constitution and laws, insulted and trampled under foot the glorious flag of our country. We deeply sympathize with the friends of those of our THE VOLUNTEER EZRA CHAPEL. comrades-in-arms who have fallen ; our sorrows are only appeased by the knowledge that they fell as brave men, battling for the preservation and perpetuation of one of the best governments of earth. ' Peace be to their ashes.' ' The Union armies had battled at the front, crushing out rebellion by gallant deeds, but meanwhile stay-at-home foes were starting "a fire in the rear," secret political societies were creat- ing dissensions and discords amounting to trea- son ; orators and presses were counseling a resistance to the draft, and Confederate emissaries lived on the margin of disobedience to the laws. General Logan, when the army halted at Atlanta, was induced to return to Illinois, where he ad- dressed large assemblies on the political situation. Coming from the scenes of his fame, and almost bringing the smell of gunpowder on his gar- ments, he inspired his hearers with his own confi- dence that God would give success to the Union arms. Kindling within their breast the same patri- otic fires which lighted up his own heart, he in- spired them with a spirit of energetic determina- tion to sustain the Union cause and to re-elect Abraham Lincoln to the Presidential chair. The secrecy observed by General Sherman in starting on his " March to the Sea " prevented General Logan from joining his command, and he subsequently reported to General Grant at City Point for orders. He reached there when Gen- GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN. eral Grant was annoyed because General Thomas had not assaulted Nashville, having been delayed by storms of rain, which froze as it fell, covering the earth with ice upon which neither man nor beast could stand. An order removing General Thomas telegraphed to Washington not having been promulgated, General Grant ordered Gen- eral Logan to proceed at once to Nashville and await orders. His instructions contemplated his relieving General Thomas if on his arrival no attack had been made upon Hood. Here was a most brilliant position offered that of com- mander of the Army of the Cumberland, just as it had been reorganized and put in order of bat- tle, and stood in its trenches ready for the word to advance. Had ambition alone actuated him, here was the opportunity of a lifetime of active service. But instead of obeying the spirit of his instructions he proceeded with such deliberation as to prove beyond room for cavil that selfish am- bition was not his governing motive. Appreciating the situation, he journeyed to his new post with- out undue haste. The thaw came at last ! Gen- eral Thomas was able to move on the enemy's works, and General Logan, telegraphing the suc- cess of the Army of the Cumberland, requested that he might be ordered to his beloved Four- teenth Corps. This was another proof of his honorable regard for others rather than a thirst for self-a^randizement. THE VOLUNTEER EZRA CHAPEL. Joining the Fourteenth Corps at Savannah, Gen- eral Logan led it in the march through the Caro- linas. At Edisto, on the Saluda, and on the Great Pedee the corps sustained its reputation that it "never met the enemy but to strike and destroy him." It was among the foremost troops in Col- umbia, where it worked hard to extinguish the flames kindled by the Confederates before they hactyeft the city. "I saw,-" said General Sherman in his report," Generals Howard, Logan, and others laboring to save houses and protect families thus suddenly deprived of shelter and of bedding and wearing apparel. We saved what of Columbia remains unconsumed." Marching northward through the Carolinas, General Logan participated in the surrender of General Johnson, and arrived with his command at Washington City, to head with his corps the Division of the Mississippi when it made its tri- umphant appearance for final review by President Johnson on the 24th of May, 1865. Alas! that the much loved President Lincoln could not have been present to have rendered that martial pageant complete ! The Army of the Potomac, which had been reviewed the day previous, was familiar to the people of Washington, but they knew little personally of the Division of the Mis- sissippi. They had heard, however, of their heroic acts flanking strongholds, storming hostile works, making gallant charges, marching in triumph GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN. through every insurgent State east of the Missis- sippi, and sweeping around like a cyclone to the capital of the Confederacy, literally crushing slav- ery, secession, and State-rights. General Sher- man, on reaching the reviewing stand, dismounted and paid his respects to President Johnson, leav- ing General Logan at the head of the stalwart, weather-browned veterans, who had been led by him from victory to victory to glory and to final triumph. "He rode with light of battle in his face," receiving shouts of applause that must have made his heart leap, and feeling that justice had at last been done him, as he had been promoted that morning to the command of the Army of the Tennessee. CHAPTER X. CIVIL LIFE THE REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS. WHEN the troops of Illinois " came marching home," crowned with laurels, the voters of General Logan's Con- gressional district, who had seen with pride upon the battle-flao-s the record of his victories, insisted o upon inscribing his name upon their political ban- ner. He declined the appointment as minister to Mexico, tendered him in 1865 by President John- son, but he accepted the nomination of the Repub- licans of Illinois as their candidate for Representa- tive-at-large in Congress. He received 203,045 votes against 147,058 votes for Mr. Dickey, a Democrat. Going to Washington, accompanied by Mrs. Logan, to take his seat in the Fortieth Congress, General Logan lived in the same unos- tentatious way that he had observed before the war. No one could see any assumption of supe- riority on his part, founded on the fact that he was the only citizen who had volunteered as a private, risen to the rank of major-general, and success- fully commanded an army in the field. Yet he had a new class of constituents, not only from Illinois, but from every section of the Union 597 GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN. soldiers who wore the blue and soldiers who wore the gray and he has invariably made their wants his cause. Claims for pensions, for supplies fur- nished Union troops, for bounties, and for aid have always received his careful attention, although they have often required investigations at the executive departments, the taking of testimony, the identification of the claimants, a large expendi- ture of time, and often of money never to be repaid. A true friend of the soldiers, General Logan has never failed to urge their claims before Congress, and much of the liberal legislation which has cheered the last years of thousands of maimed and battle-worn veterans was originated and carried through Congress by his personal exertions. He has not been a scrambler for executive patronage, but it has ever been his pride and his pleasure to secure appointments civil, military, or naval for those who served honorably in the war. Early in the first session of this Congress, General Logan, learning that there was an organi- zation formed in this country for the invasion of the Republic of Mexico, and the overthrow of its government, introduced a resolution into the House declaring such attempts to violate the neutrality laws at variance with the wishes and f<-elinrrs of all ood citizens of the United c* o States. The resolution, which the House promptly passed, directed the President, in case he should THE REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS. be satisfied of the existence of such oro-ani- o zations, to issue his proclamation commanding the execution of the laws, and warning all persons who might depart from the United States for the purpose of invading the Republic of Mexico or any other country, or creating any disturbance therein, that they would thereby forfeit all rights to protection under the laws of the United States. Congress had been convened, by a special law, on the 4th of March, that the question of recon- struction might not be left in the hands of the President, who was defying the legislative depart- ment of the Governmnt, yet in a few weeks a resolution was introduced providing for an ad- journment until December. This General Logan opposed, saying, as he concluded his remarks : "Shall we place ourselves before the country as if enacting a farce? Did we assemble here to place ourselves in that ridiculous attitude before the country, as a set of men without backbone enough to do that which we called ourselves to- gether to do ?" On another occasion General Logan urged the reference to the Committee on Indian Affairs of a joint resolution for the payment of Choctaw and Chickasaw Indian claims. It had been passed by the Senate, and an attempt was made to hurry it through the House, but General Logan presented a statement from the chief of the tribe showing that while the loyal Choctaws had suffered severe GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN. losses by the Rebellion, no thoroughly loyal man had presented a claim for damages. " If these things are true," said General Logan, " then these claims should not be paid. And if the gentleman advocating them does not know of their falsity, then that is a good reason why this bill should be referred to a committee." The House referred it. As the close of the session approached a reso- lution was introduced authorizing the publication of speeches in the Congressional Globe after the adjournment. To this General Logan objected. " I suggest," said he, " that all speeches \vhich are handed in prior to the adjournment might be printed. But the proposition to give gentlemen an opportunity of going home and writing out answers to speeches made in the House and pub- lishing them in the Congressional Globe is cer- tainly, in my estimation, very objectionable. If gentlemen will give me an opportunity to go home and write a speech in reply to some already published I may malign and libel a member as much as I have a mind to and there is no reply to it. If speeches are to be printed they should at least be presented and printed in the Globe while Congress is in session, so that if there is any at- tack or misstatement it might be replied to before the adjournment of Congress." General Logan spoke at some length on re- construction. He declared that the Union sol- diers never dreamt that for every rebel they killed THE REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS. at the South they were making an enemy at the North, now that the brave men who fought them, and whom they had to literally overwhelm before they could conquer them, were ready to for- get the past and be friends, as we all ought to be again. In conclusion he said: "I have seen quite enough of carnage and private and national dis- tress, and long to see the day come again when we shall be as peaceful, prosperous, and happy as we were before that crawling serpent, 'Secession, sought to strangle us in our national cradle. That day may soon come again if the South will rise up sternly resolved that they will follow Naaman through the Jordan of repentance until the leprosy of treason and Democracy shall be washed out of their political system. How much they have been benefited by the sympathies of the Democracy they ought by this time to be able to estimate and appreciate. The hour they discover they possess the good sense and courage to repudiate openly and emphatically treason and embrace warmly and sincerely loyalty, they will see dawn upon them the bright morning of their regeneration and deliverance." When the Army of the Tennessee was home- ward bound, its principal officers organized in the Senate Chamber of the capital at Raleigh, North Carolina, a society to "keep alive and pre- serve that kindly and cordial feeling which had been one of the characteristics of that army during 5o2 GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN. its glorious career." At the first election of offi- cers, General Rawlins was chosen President and General Logan the First Vice-President, and he has always manifested a great interest in its an- nual meetings. General Logan was also the first Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization which has since placed on its rolls a large majority of the surviving vol- unteer soldiery of the United States, bound by the triple bond of Union "Fraternity, Charity, and Loyalty," CHAPTER XL THE LEGISLATOR THE MANAGER OF IMPEACH- MENT. AT the second session of the Fortieth Con- gress, General Logan was reappointed chairman of a joint Committee on Ord- nance, which, as he remarked, had been sitting with open doors, and had disclosed the existence of great frauds perpetrated on the Government in contracts. He also asserted " that more of our own men were killed in the late war by our own ammunition, fired from our own light and heavy field-pieces, than were killed by the heavy and light artillery of the enemy. Guns are made to-day for the use of the army and navy that are the in- vention of some men directly connected with one or the other of these departments. Indeed, no other men can have an opportunity of getting such contracts." A bill having been introduced for the employ- ment of additional clerks for the settlement of bounty claims, General Logan offered a substitute providing that preference should be given to soldiers and sailors who had served faithfully. His reason for urging this, as he frankly gave it, 603 604 GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN. was, " I know that if soldiers and sailors are em- ployed as clerks they will feel more interest in performing that duty for the benefit of their former comrades who have been with them in arms, than will others who have not the same sympathy with or feeling for them that they have with and for each other." One of the Illinois Democrats having extended a few remarks into a long and labored attack upon the Republican party, before putting it in print General Logan called him to account. In attempting to defend himself, the member cast some personal reflections on General Logan, who promptly replied : " In regard to what my col- league has said about his being a gentleman I have nothing to say. I do not desire to reply to insinuations made in such bitterness and coming from the lips of a gentleman so highly cultivated that he can insinuate here that I am an illiterate man. I desire not to say anything to affect the honesty, the moral integrity, or the personal standing of any gentleman who stands so high that he can cast an insinuation of that kind upon a colleague in this House. True it is, I was not educated in any of the higher colleges, nor was my colleague. I was educated, however, in a town that had church steeples. Whether my col- league can say as much is for him to answer. I do not claim that I am one of the highly educated gentlemen of this House ; I claim no such thing. THE MANAGER OF IMPEACHMENT. But I will say to my colleague that he, with his own knowledge of his own abilities and erudition, should be the last man to insinuate anything against the education or abilities of any man on this floor." In the reduction of the army, General Logan claimed that a fair share of the officers appointed from the volunteers should be retained. " Sir," said he, " four years of experience in the field is worth four years of experience within the walls of West Point. I insist that those civilians who have served in the army shall have the same rights and privileges under our legislation as these West Point men, who have been protected, fostered, and sustained by every law Congress has passed in regard to this subject. The people of the country do not understand that an officer of the army has an inalienable right to hold on to his commission as long as life lasts with more tenacity, apparently, sometimes, than ordinary men adhere to it." General Logan was chosen by the House of Representatives one of the Managers to impeach President Andrew Johnson for high crimes and misdemeanors and to conduct his trial. His ar- guments during the trial displayed legal research and a thorough acquaintance with the constitu- tional powers and prerogatives of the President of the United States. He reviewed the evidence sustaining the charges in the articles of impeach- ment, and demonstrated that the President had GENERAL JOHN A. LOG AX. been false to the people who had taken him from obscurity and conferred on him high distinction, false to the memory of him whose death made him President, false to the principles of our con- test for national life, false to the Constitution and laws of the land, and false to his oath of office. In concluding his eloquent arraignment he said that he was "overwhelmed with emotion. Memory is busy with the scenes of the years which have intervened between March 4th, 1861, and this day. Our great war, its battles, and ten thousand inci- dents, without mental bidding and beyond control, almost pass in panoramic view before me. As in the presence of those whom I have seen fall in battle as we rushed to victory, or die of wounds or disease in hospital far from home and the loved ones, to be seen no more until the grave gives up its dead, have I endeavored to discharge my hum- ble part in this great trial." General Logan was also actively engaged at this session in the discussion of the appropriation bills, of the funding bills, of the tax bill, of the bill granting pensions to the soldiers of 1812, of the bill for the purchase f Alaska, and of other im- portant public measures. Once he spoke at length on the principles of the Democratic party, asserting that the Democratic platform is a " whited sepulchre, full of dead men's bones ;" and saying: "It is a monument which is intended to hide decay and conceal corruption. Like many THE MANAGER OF IMPEACHMENT. other monuments, it attracts attention by its vast proportions and excites disgust by the falsity of its inscriptions. The casual observer, knowing nothing of the previous life of the deceased, who reads this eulogy upon the tomb, might imagine that all the virtues, the intellect, and the genius of the age were buried there. But to him who knows that the life had been a living lie, an inces- sant pursuit of base ends, the stone is a mockery and the panegyric a fable. It is my purpose to show, sir, that this Democratic platform is mock- ery of the past, and that its promises for the future are hollow, evasive, and fabulous; that it disregards the sanctities of truth and deals only in the language of the juggler. It is like the words of the weird witches, who wrought a noble nature to crime and ruin, and then, in the hour of dire extremity s 'Kept the word of promise to the ear And broke it to the hope. ' " At the short closing session of the Fortieth Congress, General Lo^an continued his interest & > in the questions which he had previously supported or opposed, especially the operations of the pen- sion laws and the bill to strengthen the public credit. He was not in favor of a bill retaining officials in office, as he considered it class legisla- tion, and he spoke at length against granting sub- sidies to the Denver Pacific Railroad. "Sir," said General Logan, on the latter point, " I am in favor GENERAL JOILV A. LOGAN. of the great march of improvement, of civilization, and a general development of all the wealth and resources of this country. But, sir, that is no reason why, as a representative of my constituents, I should stand by and see the Treasury every day growing leaner and leaner by the inroads made upon it by these railroad and other corporations. I am not willing to do it. I say to my friends in this House ; I say to my Republican friends although I do not regard this as a political mea- sure by any means that we pledged ourselves to our constituents in the convention that nomina- ted our President-elect that economy should be our watchword. If we are true to the men that elected us we shall stand by that pledge to-day." CHAPTER XII. THE LEGISLATOR THE GRAND ARMY. GENERAL GRANT was inaugurated Pres- ident on the 4th of March, 1869, and on that day General Logan took his seat in the House of Representatives, having been re- elected as a member-at-large from Illinois by a splendid majority. On the first day of the session he aided in the election of James G. Elaine for Speaker, and a few days later he was appointed chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs. The reduction of the army had not been completed, and General Logan diligently continued the work, lopping off supernumerary staff officers, retrench- ing unnecessary expenses, yet providing for the en- listed men and protecting the colored veterans against the swindling claim agents. General Lo<jan also looked after the interests o of bis constituents as affected by proposed tax legislation and boldly denounced those engaged in robbing the Government. " Gentlemen," said *._> he, "are always talking here about a 'Whisky Ringr;' but one-half of them do not know what o ' that phrase means. I will tell what it means. It means an association of whisky men leagued to- 609 6 IO GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAX. gether in a secret organization, with a president, with an attorney, with agents sent here to this Congress; and the members of this association subscribe money, not for the purpose of hiring anybody, not for any declared object, but they subscribe money, which their attorney and agents take ; and they never know what becomes of the money. I made an investigation of this matter when I was a member of the Committee of Ways and Means, and I know what I state. The very same association of men by whom this is done are the men who are to-day demanding that this proposition shall be passed. And if this measure be adopted it will be in the interest of the same rotten 'ring' that has already robbed the Government of millions of dollars." General Logan opposed retiring a colonel in the regular army, who had at one time during the war commanded a division, with the rank and pension of a major-general. He did not believe that the regular army officers assigned to gene- rals' command at the first battle of Bull Run should all be retired with that rank. At the second session of the Forty-first Con- gress General Logan took an active part in break- ing up the existing practice in which some Representatives had indulged of selling their rights to appoint cadets at West Point. In one of these cases where a Representative had asked and received five hundred dollars for THE LEGISLATOR THE GRAND ARMY. j j appointing a young man resident in a dis- tant State as a cadet from his district a good deal of sympathy was manifested for the offender. General Butler, who was his personal friend, defended him with his well-known legal ability, but General Logan was inexorable. "What we shall do," said he, " will not be done in any spirit of ill-feeling or revenge, or from a desire to punish any man, but because we are impelled by a sense of justice, by a sense of propriety, by a determination which should be felt by every offi- cer of the Government to perform our duty faith- fully, without fear, favor, or reward, or the hope of promise thereof. Charity should find no home, mercy find no proper abiding place, leniency no place of rest where justice may thereby be thwarted. Justice claims the highest place in the mind and heart of every man ; and it claims the right to have judgments, though tempered with leniency and charity, based upon a legal and proper basis." The guilty member was expelled by a vote of 187 yeas, no' nays, and 35 absent or not voting. General Logan was also prominent during this session in advocating legislation opposing poly- gamy, on the revival of American navigation, on the Southern contested election cases, on the ap- propriation bills, and especially on the reduction of the army. He showed the great abuses- that had sprung up during the war, and demonstrated that the saving effected by the bill reported by him by 6j 2 GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN. reducing extra pay and emoluments would be about three millions of dollars. He declared that Congress should do justice to the army, but that at the same time it should "do justice to its own constituents to the people who pay the taxes of this country." " Congress," said he, " has been looked upon, it seems, heretofore as merely the recorders of the edicts of the heads of army bureaus in refer- ence to matters of this kind. Let it be under- stood that intelligent and just action is all that can be demanded of Congress, and that bluster and denunciation of proper action is at a dis- count, while the exercise of sound judgment and a due respect for the interest of the whole peo- ple, who make and unmake officers of all classes, is at a premium." At the third session of the Forty-first Congress General Logan interested himself in securing the passage of a bill giving homesteads to honorably discharged soldiers. The issue of land warrants, he said, would benefit officers, and they would find their way into the hands of speculators. But he wished the private soldier to receive a home as a patrimony for his patriotism. He carefully scrutinized a bill extending certain privileges to corporations, which he thought might exempt them from accountability to State laws ; he advocated the abolition of the office of admiral, made vacant by the death of the gallant Farragut ; he opposed THE LEGISLATOR THE GRAND ARMY. j , the raising of bodies of "rangers" for Indian hos- tilities independent of the army, and he discussed a bill restoring three cadets who had been dis- missed from the military academy at West Point, uro-ino- the House to re-examine the case. o o "Let us," said he, "be controlled by the facts and governed by an honest judgment. Let us not be influenced as to who are the fathers and relatives of these young men. One of these young men who is mentioned as having taken a part in this transaction is a young man who was appointed by myself. He is a relative of my family. His people are my neighbors. His father was a gallant soldier and served under me during the war. Notwithstanding all this I have a duty to perform, and that duty as an officer of this country I shall perform. No personal or politi- cal considerations shall influence me in the per- formance of my sworn duty." The National Encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic, which held its fourth annual ses- sion at Washington on the I2th of May, 1870, re- elected General Logan as Commander-in-Chief. In his annual address he urged the establishment of Memorial Day, to be observed by fitting honor to those who died that their country might live. Repudiating the charge that the Grand Army was a political association, he declared that its only political creed was " the love of our country and its hallowed institutions." 5 ! A GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN. In May, 1871, the National Encampment of the Grand Army met at Boston, and at a banquet given there General Logan said : " While organi- zations of officers were formed for keeping up fra- ternal relations, it was asked: 'Where shall the one-legged soldiers meet ? Where shall the lame, the maimed.and the disabled assemble ?' And the same voice said : ' Where is my widow ? Where are my orphans ? Who is there to protect them, to heal the wounds of their spirit ? This voice was answered first by a soldier poor. and weak in body, but with a great mind. He spoke to many, and I was one of them, of forming an organization where soldiers could meet and by joint effort extend the hand of chanty to the' widow and the orphan. This soldier, with the assistance of several others, drafted the by-laws and constitution for the Grand Army of the Republic. The order was organized in Springfield, Illinois, and the name of the orig- inator is Dr. Stevenson. The organization has O gone on to the present day ; it has taken into its ranks the officers of each of the Grand Armies of the Union ; it receives every soldier who has an honorable discharge, from whatever army, corps, or division he may come. I have presided over the order for three years, and the gallant Burnside has been unanimously elected my successor. It has, as an organization, done much good, more even than the most of you are aware of. It is for the purpose of giving an opportunity to all soldiers THE LEGISLATOR THE GRAND ARMY. fa g of standing upon the same noble platform. That platform is fraternity, loyalty, and charity fra- ternity to one another ; loyalty to the starry ban- ner, to the Constitution and laws of the United States, to the integrity of this great and mighty Union, and to the principles upon which it was founded." CHAPTER XIII. THE SENATOR THE SOLDIER'S FRIEND. ELECTED a United States Senator from Illinois, to succeed Hon. Richard Yates, early in 1871, General Logan took his seat on the 4th of March. He was placed on the Committee on Military Affairs, and he vigorously protested against the deposition of Charles Sum- ner from the chairmanship of the Committee on Foreign Relations. " Twelve years ago," said he, " when I came to Congress, I differed with the Senator from Massachusetts in my political opin- ions. I had always recognized him as a man of great ability, as a man of sterling integrity and worth ; yet I had no sympathy whatever with his political views. But I was attracted toward him in my sympathies and feelings because of the fact that I stood many times in this chamber and saw him stand like a Roman Senator and hurl away the curs of slavery as they snapped and snarled at him. I many times saw him disperse them in debate on the floor of the Senate. I learned then to admire him, although I did not fully agree with him. He then, sir, led the army of liberty in this country. He was its leader in 616 THE SENATOR THE SOLDIER'S FRIEND. 617 the Senate, its leader everywhere, as its orator, as its advocate, as the man that advanced opinions, as the man that went far in advance and only beckoned to others to come forward with him and give liberty to all the people of this country. During- the terrible war through which we have passed he was one of the great leaders in the Senate. Through all our trials and difficulties, through our misfortunes and our triumphs, he stood at the head of the men in favor of liberty in this land. When this Administration came into power he still, as the great debater, as the great statesman in this land, stood at the head of all. He was a friend of the Administration. I hope that the friendly personal relation between them may be restored and again exist." General Logan introduced in the Senate, and had passed against strong opposition on constitutional grounds, a bill relieving the sufferers by the great fire in Chicago by permitting them to import building material free of duty. The next year the same relief was asked for the city of Boston, and General Logan advocated granting it. " Sir," said he, " as a citizen of Chicago, I have seen fire in all its fiendish fury; I have seen its destruction and its calamity ; I have seen the sorrow that fol- lowed it ; I have seen the destruction of property caused by that great element ; I have seen it strike down the pride of the people of a great city, and when I know that the same thing has seized on 6 j 8 GENERAL JOHN A. L OGAN. other communities, it must at least arouse in my breast the same feeling and the same sympathy." General Logan not only presented the petitions of many disabled soldiers for pensions and secured action on them, but he had passed a number of bills for the general benefit of the war-veterans, , especially those who were disabled. He intro- duced a bill to incorporate a Training School for the orphans of Union soldiers and sailors, and he showed his appreciation of those who had given up their lives while serving under the old flag by securing appropriations for the military ceme- teries near the City of Mexico and at the Salisbury Prison, and for the erection of the statue to General John A. Rawlins which now graces the Federal Metropolis. When General Grant was assailed in the Senate General Logan was his most eloquent defender. "What," said he, "has the tanner from Galena done ? He has written his history in deeds which will live so long as pens are dipped in ink, so long as men read, and so long as history is written. The history of that man is worth something. It is val- uable; it is not a history of glittering generalities and declamation in speeches, but it is a history of great deeds and great things accomplished for his country." After graphically reviewing General Grant's Western campaigns, in which he had served under him, General Logan alluded to the succes- O sive defeats of the Army of the Potomac and went THE SENATOR THE SOLDIER'S FRIEND. 5,0 on to say: "General Grant was brought to the Army of the Potomac. He made a success ; he won the battle ; victory perched upon our ban- ners; we succeeded; slavery was abolished, and our country saved." In conclusion, General Lo- gan urged disaffected Republicans to " stand by the old ship, in which there is life, and outside of which there is death. But whether they do or not success will be ours; this Government will be peaceful, the people happy and prosperous, har- mony and unity will prevail, to the great advance- ment of the material interests of this great nation." In 1873, General Logan delivered the annual oration at the seventh annual meeting of the Army of the Tennessee, at Toledo, Ohio. After reviewing the glorious war record of the army and paying a feeling tribute to its deceased offi- cers, he eloquently said : " And now that peace is restored and the power of the nation mani- fested and its authority vindicated, we should glory in its perpetuity and triumph and teach our posterity to. honor that old flag emblem of peace and prosperity. For three-quarters of a century, in every land and every clime, it has been the banner of freedom and token of liberty the star- spangled banner that has gathered millions from lands of oppression and homes of servitude. In foreign lands the wanderer has greeted it with gladdened eyes and thankful heart as he beheld it floating from the mast. It is the same banner 6 2 O GENERAL JOHN A. L OGAN. that waved over that noble band of patriots that won our independence, led on by the immortal Washington. Its flaming folds hurled back defiance from the ramparts at New Orleans and flaunted in the face of invaders. On the heights of Chapultepec and towers of New Mexico it floated proudly as the token of victory and the evidence of success. From the walls of Sumter it proclaimed unflinching war with secession and unyielding strife with disunion. During the long and wearisome marches through the States in rebellion it gladdened the eyes and nerved the hand of the weary Union soldier and proclaimed freedom to the oppressed. On a hundred battle- fields it cheered the heart of the dying patriot as he beheld it borne on in triumph amidst the shouts of victory. All hail ! proud old banner of the free. No ruthless hand shall despoil thee; no dark cloud of treason shall ever dim thy lustre. Float on in the breeze ; you shall be preserved and cherished, amid all the vicissitudes of the future, as the emblem of liberty." The outrages in the State of Louisiana met o. with General Logan's severe condemnation, and o he earnestly defended President Grant and Gen- eral Sheridan, who had been denounced for their action against the " White Leagues." " Why," he asked, "are Democratic Senators quiet? Men cannot say, either here or elsewhere, that these wrongs are perpetrated by Republicans. You, THE SENATOR THE SOLDIER'S FRIEND. g^j gentlemen, sit silent here ; and your silence and your acquiescence and your defense of every wrong that is perpetrated upon the unfortunate man, poor though he may be, colored though he may be, indicate what there is in your hearts." General Logan's first term as Senator expired in 1877, and he was unanimously nominated by the Republicans of the Illinois Legislature for re- election, but that party lacked three votes of a majority, and, after a long contest, Judge David Davis was elected by the combined votes of the Democrats and Independents. CHAPTER XIV. RETURN TO THE SENATE REPUBLICAN CONVENTION. IN 1879, the Republicans of Illinois had again a majority in the Legislature, and elected General Logan to the Senate to succeed Governor Oglesby. He took his seat on the i6th of March, and at once recommenced his exer- tions for securing arrears of pensions to the Union veterans of the late war, which he had passed several times in the Senate to see it fall into some of the legislative traps of the House. In a long debate on the Army Appropriation bill, General Logan gave a clear analysis of the rela- tions of the military force to the civil power of the Government, and exposed the arrogant at- tempts of the Democratic party to control the Government. "The Republicans," he told the Democratic Senators, " will not relinquish any of those advanced principles which have inured to the Government and the people through the suf- ferings of the war. They will never abandon the principles enunciated in the Thirteenth, Four- teenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the Consti- tution. They will never permit a modification of the rights of the four million blacks of the South. 622 RETURN TO THE SENATE. They, after having been liberated from slavery and elevated to the full rights of citizenship, shall not be remanded to a condition as bad or worse than serfdom or peonage. They will never, never quietly permit, sir, the elective franchise, upon the purity of which rests our whole political structure, to be dispensed at the hands of hired ruffians and paid assassins." General Logan attended the National Republi- can Convention at Chicago, in 1880, to advocate the nomination of General Grant, believing- that o he could carry several Southern States and thus overthrow "the Solid South." The Chicago Jour- nal said of him : " He is a stalwart Grant man, standing by his great .commander now with the same chivalric spirit which prevented him from assuming command of Thomas' army on the eve of victory, as he could have done under his in- structions." How nobly he carried out the prom- ise of that letter ! When Garfield received a ma- jority of the votes at the Chicago Convention it was Logan'who so warmly and fervently seconded the motion to make the vote for him unanimous, and who was the first to promise that he, with the Garfield men, would " go forward in this contest, not with tied hands, not with sealed lips, not with bridled tongues, but to speak the truth in favor of the grandest party that has ever been organized in this country ; to maintain its principles, to maintain its power, to preserve its ascendency." <;/:. VA A-.//, JOIL\ ./. I.O(,A.\. General Garfield was highly gratified when, at the ratification meeting held at Washington on the o o i6th of June, 1880, General Logan came forward to speak, receiving enthusiastic applause. When quiet had been partially restored, he said : " If any one desired to know who his first and last choice was, he would answer : the nominee of the Republican party. The candidate that now bore its banner was all that he or the people could de- sire. If the people of this country desired a born leader they had it in the person of James A. Gar- field. No matter who the first or second choice had been, let the only choice now be the nominee. All sores should be healed, and there should be no feeling save one of success ; and to his old comrades he would say: Touch elbows on the march, and press forward to certain victory." In July, 1880, the Republican National Com- mittee placed General Logan at the head of the Executive Committee in charge of the Republican campaign in the West. Within a week thereafter he opened the contest in Illinois with a ringing, two hours' speech at Murphysboro' a great speech, covering the records of both parties, elab- orate, exhaustive, direct, and convincing before an audience larger than had ever before been o seen there at a political meeting. " Logan," said one who knew, "neither sulked nor lamented. He was the first of the stalwarts to take off his coat and mount the stump for Garfiold. His labors in RETURN TO THE SENATE. 62S this State [Illinois] were little short of Herculean. He spoke night and day, and his speeches plain, practical, destitute of rhetorical flourishes, and dealing in the questions that were asked during the canvass had an immense effect upon his au- ditors." From the beginning of the campaign to its close in November, besides his other labors and in addition to indoor addresses, to audiences ranging from a few thousands up to forty thou- sand, oration after oration signalized his appear- ance everywhere. Said a special telegram from Pittsfield, in the Inter- Ocean of November i st, after alluding to his speech there the previous evening : "Thus ends one of the most remarkable per- sonal campaigns ever made. Senator Logan has made over sixty open-air speeches, extending from Maine to Illinois. He spoke in Indiana nearly a month almost every day, and one day made no less than nine different speeches." True to Garfield, the Republican nominee, he was as true to Garfield, the Republican President. After Garfield's inauguration, when trouble arose within the party, Logan supported the Administration cordially. As has been well said by another, " While not assailing his friend Conkling, he yet gave him no encouragement in his contest with the President. He rather assumed the attitude of a peacemaker and sought to heal all wounds and put an end to all dissensions in the party." General Logan's speeches in defense of the 626 GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN. verdict of the Court which tried Fitz John Porter have been alike exhaustive and able, giving the views of a soldier on a soldier's conduct, with a wonderful array of authorities from martial law, historical facts, illustration, and appeal. The New York Tribune said of the principal effort : " Prob- ably never before within the history of the Senate has a speech, lasting through the sessions of four days, been listened to with such attention," and it recalled to old-stagers at the Capitol the great speeches of Benton, in completeness and force. When the National Republican Convention met again at Chicago, in June, 1884, many sup- ported General Logan as their first choice for nomination as Presidential candidate. A larger number, however, preferred the Hon. James G. Elaine, of Maine, and when General Logan learned this he immediately telegraphed to his friends to support " the Plumed Knight," who was then nominated. The Convention then unan- imously nominated General Logan for Vice-Pres- ident, amid great enthusiasm, which was echoed in every loyal soldier's heart in the land. CHAPTER XV. THE SOLDIER STATESMAN THE CANDIDATE. THE preceding pages give the salient points of General Logan's eventful life. A well- educated and able lawyer, a brave and gallant soldier, a meritorious legislator, and a suc- cessful politician, he has an unassailable record and his personal popularity is unbounded. Reared on a farm, and now the successful cultivator of his own fertile acres, he is regarded as the farmer's true friend. " To see him," said the Springfield, Illinois, Monitor, "at Carbondale, with a wide- brimmed straw hat, blue woolen shirt, and but- ternut pants on, astride of his favorite ' Dolly,' going backward and forward to his wheat-fields, and while there taking a hand 'shocking' after his twine-binders, is a sight which every constituency of Senators is not permitted to witness. After a hard day's work in the field with the boys he lies on the grass with them in the evening, while lemonade is freely passed around, and all hands join in discussing the news of the day. This is John A. Logan at home, and yet some people wonder why it is that he has such a hold on the boys." A farmer himself, he knows what legisla- 627 628 GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN. tion the farmers want, and does his best to secure it for them, whether through protection or other- wise. Born in the great Mississippi Valley and iden- tified with Western interests, General Logan has always advocated heartily measures for improving the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, and making them the great thoroughfares by which our grain can be sent to the European markets. He also favors a ship canal from Chicago to the Mississippi River, and the Sonoma, Illinois, Index said of him: "Not only his own State, but the whole Mississippi Valley, receives the benefit of his watchful care ; he has secured more and larger appropriations for the entire region drained by the Mississippi than have any half-dozen other Senators combined. No man understands more fully the condition of public affairs, and none is more watchful of the public welfare." The loyal veterans of the Union army recognize in General Logan a true type of the citizen-sol- dier. Rising- from the ranks to the command of O the Army of the Tennessee, he severed his polit- ical ties and fought gallantly for the Union. He never asked his men to go where he dared not go himself, but he often led where even the bravest needed all the inspiration of his gallant example to follow. Without flinching, with resolute will, common sense, and measureless persistence, he obeyed the orders of his superiors, not with me- THE SOLDIER STATESMAN THE CANDIDATE, chanical obedience, bat with an intelligent instinct that often anticipated orders, and his discipline was tempered with forbearance and with courtesy. His subordinate officers loved and respected him, and the enlisted men of his command remember that they were treated as citizens who had been prompted by patriotism to enter the ranks, and were not degraded by the abuse of martinets. Among his Congressional colleagues, at -the bar, and in social life, General Logan is loved the most by those who know him best. Free from the enslaving vices which have clouded some of the brightest intellects in the national councils and in the armies of the nation, General Logan is rather domestic in his habits, refined in his tastes, courteous in his deportment, a " Friend to truth ! of soul sincere, In action faithful, and in honor clear." He is a student, not skimming over new pub- lications, but reading or having read to him - standard works on subjects with which he desires to become familiar. He never appears to be hurried or flustered, but performs his duties systematically and thoroughly. His is " a sound mind in a sound body," and he is sustained by his religious faith in the path of duty. The Methodist Episcopal Church numbers General Logan and his wife among its members. The colored people have always found General 6^ GENERAL JOI/V A. LOGAN. iJ Logan ready to sustain the rights guaranteed to them by the Constitution. In a speech in 1880, after quoting the Fourteenth Amendment and showing the fallacy of the reasoning of those who hold that the National Government has ample power and would exercise it to the extent of war, if need be, to protect the American citizen on foreign soil, but has no power to protect the American citizen on our own soil, he says: "It would be quite as reasonable to say you cannot protect your property on your own farm, but as soon as it is safely placed on your neighbor's you may do so, even to the shedding of blood ! " I think the people of this or any other Gov- ernment would prefer to have protection at home rather than be compelled to go to foreign soil for it. I do not agree to this latter doctrine for a mo- ment. The fabric of our Government is not so weak as this. It is a Government clothed by the people with sovereign powers, through which jus- tice can be administered, domestic tranquillity pre- served, the common defense provided for, the general welfare promoted, the blessings of liberty secured to all, and its citizens at home and abroad protected in all the rights pertaining to them as citizens of the Republic ; and unless the authority shall be asserted under the Constitution and laws to do this there is great danger menacing the Re- public." General Logan is of middle height, broad- THE SOLDIER STATESMAN THE CANDIDATE M shouldered, with a head well poised, a thick growth of jet black hair, which he wears some- what long, a heavy black moustache, and eyes that seem to read one through at a glance. His manners are soldier-like, and among strangers dignified almost to austerity, but when among friends he is jovial and amiable. He speaks with great ease, and with a subdued earnestness that impresses and wins the attention of his auditors, and his voice, though sonorous, enlists the sym- pathies of listeners. Without the polished graces of a university style, seldom making a quotation, rarely indulging in an anecdote, he speaks with an earnestness that carries conviction with his argument. In debate he displays great boldness and skill, and a readiness in attack or defense which gives him great strength. General Logan and his accomplished wife have two children. Their daughter is the wife of Pay- master Tucker, of the army, who has been sta- tioned for some years past at Santa Fe, in New Mexico ; arid their son, Manning Logan, who has inherited his father's military spirit, is a cadet at the West Point Military Academy. The General's home is a pleasant house on Calumet Avenue, in Chicago, and he owns the family homestead in Southern Illinois. When at Washington he has occupied for some years past two rooms at a modest boarding-house on Twelfth Street. General Henderson, chairman of the Commit- 6, 2 GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN tee appointed at Chicago to notify the candidates for President and Vice-President of their nomina- tion, well said in his address to General Logan that in his election the people of the country will furnish new proof of the excellence of our insti- tutions. Without wealth, without help from others, without any resources except those of heart, con- science, intellect, energy, and courage, he has won a high place in the world's history and secured the confidence and affection of his countrymen. Being one of the people, his sympathies are with the people. In civil life his chief care has been to better their condition, to secure their rights and perpetuate their liberties. When the Govern- ment was threatened by armed treason he en- tered its service as a private, became a com- mander of armies, and is now the ideal of the citizen-soldiers of this Republic. Such, in the judgment of the Republican party, is the candi- date it has selected. With Blaine as a leader and Lo^an as second o in command, the Republican party will march proudly forward, " keeping step to the music of the Union," to a glorious triumph the triumph of Union and Liberty, of the advancement of Ameri- can Industry, of the Rights of all the People, of the Honor, the Prosperity, and the Glory of the Republic. THE CITIZEN'S HANDBOOK OF VALUABLE FACTS FOR CAMPAIGN WORK. "In order to have any success in life, or any worthy success, you must resolve to carry into your work a full- ness of Knowledge not merely a Sufficiency, but more than a Sufficiency." James A. Garfield. PRESIDENTIAL CONTESTS. 635 BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF THE PRESIDENTIAL CONTESTS. Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, John Quincy Adams, and Jackson were chosen to the Presidency without the machinery of either State or National Conven- tions for their nomination. WASHINGTON was chosen by common consent and demand, receiving the unanimous electoral vote, sixty-nine, ten States only voting, New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island not having adopted the Constitution or framed election laws, and four qualified delegates being absent. At his second election he received all the votes but three, viz.: one hundred and thirty-two out of one hundred and thirty-five, fifteen States voting. In 1789, eleven other persons were voted for on the same ballots with Washington, he who received the next highest vote to be the Vice-President, as was the rule until 1 804. John Adams was thus chosen by thirty-four votes over the following competitors : John Jay, R. H. Harrison, John Rutledge, John Hancock, George Clinton, Samuel Hunt- ingdon, John Milton, James Armstrong, Benjamin Lincoln, and Edward Telfair. In 1792, John Adams was again chosen Vice-President, by seventy-seven out of one hundred and thirty-two votes, over George Clinton, Thomas Jefferson, and Aaron Burr. Adams represented the Federalist or Adminis- tration party of the day, the opposition being then known as the Republican party. ADAMS, having twice held the Vice-Presidency, was thought to have a claim on the higher position, and in 1 796, sixteen States voting, he received seventy- one electoral votes, Jeffer- son receiving sixty-eight, and becoming Vice-President over Thomas Pinckney, Aaron Burr, Samuel Adams, Oliver Ells- worth, George Clinton, John Jay, James Iredell, George Washington, John Henry, S. Johnson, and Charles C. Pinck- ney, for each of whom from one to fifty -nine electoral votes 636 rRKSIDENTIAL CONTESTS. were cast. The successful candidates represented the two parties of the day. In 1800, the parties in Congress each held a caucus and each nominated its own candidates. JEFFERSON was chosen President in 1800, on the thirty- sixth ballot of the House of Representatives, he and Aaron Burr having a tie vote of seventy-three in the Electoral Col- lege, sixteen States voting. Burr then became Vice-President over John Adams, Charles C. Pinckney, and John Jay, who represented the Federalists. In 1803, the Constitution was amended prescribing the present method of choosing the nation's chief officers. After this for a long period the Re- publican party and its successor, the Democratic party, had things as they pleased. In 1804, Jefferson was re-elected over Charles C. Pinckney by one hundred and sixty-two votes to fourteen, George Clinton becoming Vice-President over Rufus King. This was a result of the Congressional caucus. Seventeen States voted. MADISON, the nominee of the Republican caucus, received one hundred and twenty-two electoral votes in 1808, seventeen States voting, his opponent, Charles C. Pinckney, receiving but fourteen, and George Clinton, another candidate, receiving none. Clinton received one hundred and thirteen votes for the Vice-Presidency, however, and was chosen over Rufus King, John Langdon, James Madison, and James Monroe. In 1812, Madison received one hundred and twenty-eight electoral votes out of two hundred and eighteen, eighteen States voting, De Witt Clinton receiving eighty-nine votes. Elbridge Gerry was chosen to the second place by one hun- dred and thirty-one votes, Jared Ingersoll receiving eighty-six. MONROE was twice lifted into power by the caucus, receiv- ing one hundred and eighty-three votes to thirty-four for Rufus King, in 1816, and two hundred and thirty-one to one only for John Quincy Adams, in 1820, nineteen States voting in the first election and twenty-four in the second. D. D. Tompkins received one hundred and eighty-three votes for PRESIDENTIAL CONTESTS 637 Vice-President in 1816, and two hundred and eighteen in 1820, his competitors in the first race being JohnE. Howard, James Ross, John Marshall, and Robert G. Harper, and in the second Richard Stockton, Daniel Rodney, Robert G. Har- per, and Richard Rush. At the end of Monroe's term parties began to break up and new combinations to form under lead of the State Legislatures, several of which brought out their favorite sons. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS was the Coalition nominee of Massa- chusetts in 1824. Jackson was put forward by Tennessee, as were William H. Crawford and Henry Clay by their respective States; twenty-four States voted in this contest, having two hun- dred and sixty-one electoral votes, of which Jackson received ninety-nine, and Adams eighty-four, the remainder being divided among the other two candidates. No choice being made, the House of Representatives settled the contest, giving Adams thirteen States, Jackson seven States, and Crawford four States. Jackson's popular vote was one hundred and fifty-five* thousand eight hundred and seventy-two ; that of Adams, one hundred and five thousand three hundred and twenty-one, while Crawford and Clay together polled ninety thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine. A tempest of ill-feel- ing was begotten by this decision. John C. Calhoun was chosen Vice-President, however, receiving one hundred and eighty- two votes, his opponents being Nathan Sanford, Nathaniel Macon, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, and Henry Clay. JACKSON was so enraged by his defeat that he left the Senate and threw all his tremendous energy into the campaign cf 1828, he being the leader of the newly formed Democ. .itic party. Twenty-four States voted, with two hundred and sixty- one electoral votes, of which Jackson secured one hun- dred and seventy-eight, to eighty-three for Adams, and a popular vote of six hundred and forty-seven thousand two hundred and thirty-one, to five hundred and nine thousand and ninety-seven for Adams. Calhoun again became Vice- president by one hundred and seventy-one votes, Richard A^S PRESIDENTIAL CONTESTS. O Rush and William Smith being his vanquished rivals. In 1832, Jackson again swept the board, receiving two hundred and nineteen electoral votes and six hundred and eighty-seven thousand two hundred and thirty-one popular votes, Henry Clay, the National Republican candidate, receiving forty-nine electoral votes, and five hundred and thirty thousand one hundred and eighty-nine popular votes. John Floyd and William Wirt received some thirty-three thousand votes from the people and eighteen from the electors. Martin Van Buren became Vice-President in Jackson's second term, re- ceiving one hundred and eighty-nine votes, his competitors being John Sergeant, Henry Lee, Amos Ellmaker, and William Wilkins. The Convention system was born under Jackson's Adminis- tration. Its object was to prevent defeat by scattered votes in the same party The anti-Masonic party held the first gathering of the sort, William Wirt being its nominee. The National Republicans followed in 1831, the Democrats in 1832. This machinery bore its first fruits in Jackson's* second Presidential campaign. The Whig party made its first ap- pearance in 1836, but its counsels were divided and it lost. VAN BUREN was nominated by the Democrats, and in 1836, twenty-six States voting, he received one hundred and seventy electoral votes, four Whig candidates, William H. Harrison, Hugh L. White, Daniel Webster, and W. P. Mangum divid- ing among themselves eleven electoral votes. Van Buren 's popular vote was seven hundred and sixty-one thousand five hundred and forty-nine; that of all others, seven hundred and thirty-six thousand six hundred and fifty-six. R. M. Johnson, who received one hundred and seventy electoral votes for Vice-President, not receiving a majority of all, was elected by the Senate. His competitors were Francis Granger, John Tyler, and William Smith. HARRISON, in 1840, received a popular vote of one million two hundred and seventy-five thousand and seventeen, and an electoral vote of two hundred and thirty-four, as did John PRESIDENTIAL CONTESTS. 639 Tyler, his associate on the Whig ticket. He was opposed by Van Buren, who polled one million one hundred and twenty- eight thousand seven hundred and two popular votes, and sixty of the electoral college, and by James G. Birney, of the Liberty or Abolition party, who polled seven thousand and fifty-nine votes. R. M. Johnson, L. W. Tazewell, and James K. Polk were candidates for the Vice-Presidency, receiving in all sixty electoral votes. Twenty-six States voted. Harrison's election was the first Whig success, and the campaign preced* ing it has been aptly termed " the great national frolic." POLK was chosen President in 1844 over Birney, the Abo- litionist, and Clay, the Whig, receiving a popular vote of one million three hundred and thirty-seven thousand two hundred and forty-three, and an electoral vote of one hundred and seventy, to Clay's one million two hundred and ninety- nine thousand and sixty-eight popular and one hundred and five electoral, Birney's vote being sixty-two thousand three hundred popular and none -electoral. For Vice-President George M. Dallas received the same electoral vote as Polk, and Theodore Frelinghuysen the same as Clay. TAYLOR was chosen by the Whigs in 1848, Clay and Web- ster being abandoned. He and his associate, Millard Fill- more, received each one hundred and sixty-three electoral votes and a popular vote of one million three hundred and sixty thousand .one hundred and one. Lewis Cass, the Demo- cratic nominee, and Wm. O. Butler, his associate, were re- garded as a weak combination, but they polled one million two hundred and twenty thousand five hundred and forty-four votes, with one hundred and twenty-seven electors. Van Buren ran on the Free Soil ticket with Charles Francis Adams, and received two hundred and ninety-one thousand two hundred and sixty-three votes, thirty States voting. Taylor died, and Fillmore quarreled with his party, thus impairing its strength sadly. PIERCE rode into power over the fragments of the Whig party, he and his associate, William R. King, receiving two 640 PRESIDENTIAL CONTESTS. hundred and fifty-four electoral and one million six hundred and one thousand four hundred and seventy-four popular votes. Winfield Scott and William A. Graham, the Whig nominees, received forty-two electoral and one million three hundred and eighty-six thousand five hundred and seventy- eight popular votes, John P. Hale and George W. Julian, Free Democrats, polling one hundred and fifty-six thousand one hundred and forty-nine suffrages. This contest ended the Whig party. Thirty-one States voted. BUCHANAN" was chosen in 1856 by one hundred and sev- enty-four electoral votes, John C. Breckenridge being his associate, they receiving a popular vote of one million eight hundred and thirty-eight thousand one hundred and sixty- nine, John C. Fremont and Wm. L. Dayton, nominees of the newly-formed Republican party, receiving one hundred and fourteen electoral and one million three hundred and forty- one thousand two hundred and sixty-four popular votes, while Millard Fillmore and A. J. Donelson, of the American party, had eight electoral and eight hundred and seventy-four thousand five hundred and thirty-four popular votes. This was a most bitter campaign, saturated with- all the issues of slavery, disunion, and border ruffianism. LINCOLN was elected in 1860 by a popular vote of one million eight hundred and sixty-six thousand three hundred and fifty-two, and an electoral vote of one hundred and eighty, Hannibal Hamlin being his associate. This was the first victory for the Republicans. Democrats, Constitutional Unionists, and Independent Democrats voted respectively for Breckenridge and Lane, Bell and Everett, and Douglas and Johnson, who received electoral votes as follows: Breckenridge, seventy-two; Bell, thirty-nine; Douglas, twelve ; and popular votes : Breckenridge, eight hundred and forty-five thousand seven hundred and sixty-three ; Bell, five hundred and eighty-nine thousand five hundred and eighty-one; and Douglas, one million three hundred and seventy-five thousand one hundred and fifty-seven. Thirty- PRESIDENTIAL CONTESTS. ^j three States engaged in this contest, of which Lincoln carried seventeen, Breckenridge eleven, Bell three, and Douglas two. Lincoln's second election, Andrew Johnson being his associate, was by two hundred and twelve electoral and two million two hundred and sixteen thousand andsixty-seven pop- ular votes, George B. McClellan and G. H. Pendleton receiv- ing twenty-one electoral and one million eight hundred and eight thousand seven hundred and twenty-five popular votes. Eleven States and eighty-one electors were not represented in this election. Of twenty-five voting States Lincoln carried all but three. GRANT was chosen in 1872 over Horatio Seymour by two hundred and fourteen votes of the Electoral College to eighty, twenty-three electors, three States, not represented. Schuyler Colfax and Frank P Blair, Jr., were the respective Vice-Pres- idential nominees. The popular vote was three million fifteen thousand and seventy-one, for Grant, to two million seven hundred and nine thousand six hundred and thirteen for Sey- mour. At the election of 1872 Grant had a long line of com- petitors, but he polled three million five hundred and ninety- seven thousand and seventy popular votes, and two hundred and eighty-six electoral out of a possible three hundred and sixty-six. All the States voted. His competitors on various tickets were Horace Greeley, Charles O' Conor, James Black, Thos. A. Hendricks, Charles J. Jenkins, and David Davis. Henry Wilson was chosen Vice-President, overB. Gratz Brown, Geo. W. Julian, A. H. Colquitt, John M. Palmer, T. E. Bram- lette, W. S. Groesbeck, Willis B. Machen, and N. P. Banks. HAYES was elected, with his associate, Wm. A. Wheeler, in a scattering contest. His popular vote was four million thirty- three thousand nine hundred and fifty. Samuel J. Tilden, (Democrat) received four million two hundred and eighty- four thousand eight hundred and eighty-five votes. Peter Cooper, (Greenback) eighty-one thousand seven hundred and forty. Green Clay Smith (Prohibition), nine thousand five hundred and twenty-two, and two thousand six hundred and 642 PRESIDENTIAL CONTESTS. thirty-six were scattering. T. A. Hendricks was Mr. Tilden's associate. The disputed vote was settled by an Electoral Com- mission which awarded Hayes one hundred and eighty-five electoral votes and Tilden one hundred and eighty-four. GARFIELD received, in 1880, a popular vote of four million four hundred and forty-nine thousand and fifty-three, and an electoral vote of two hundred and fourteen, together w\th Chester A. Arthur, his associate. Winfield S. Hancock and William H. English received four million four hundred and forty-two thousand and thirty-five popular, and one hundred and fifty-five electoral votes. The Greenback candidates, James B. Weaver and B. J. Chambers, received three hundred and seven thousand three hundred and six votes, and twelve thousand five hundred and seventy-six were reported as scat- tering. Thus the Republicans held the Presidency from Lin- coln's election in 1860. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS. 643 TABLES OP PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS. &UMMAEY OF POFTT1AE ArfD EtECTOEAL VOTES FOE PEE8I- DENT AND VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, 1789- 1876. I o- 2 i o OS o5 "o d X > o 2, W 3 o El POLITICAL PARTT. * PRESIDENTS. * VICE-PRESIDENTS. CANDIDATES. VOTE. CANDIDATES. 1 I States. Popular. Electoral 1789 1792 1796 1800 tio 15 16 16 73 135 138 138 George Washington John Adams fiq 34 9 6 6 4 3 2 2 1 1 1 4 John Jay R. H. Harrison John Rutledge John Hancock George Clinton . Samuel Huntingdon John Milton James Armstrong. . Benjamin Lincoln.. Edward Telfair. .. Federalist. . Federalist. . Republican Vacancies 4 George Washington John Adams 13? 77 50 4 1 3 George Clinton Thomas Jefferson. . Aaron Burr Federalist. . Republican Federalist.. Republican Vacancies . 3 John Adams 71 Thomas Jefferson. . 68 59 30 15 11 7 5 3 2 2 2 1 Thomas Pinckney.. Aaron Burr Samnel Adams Oliver Ellsworth .. George Clinton John Jay James Iredell . . . George Washington John Henry S. Johnson Charles C. Pinckney Thomas Jefferson . Republican Republican Federalist.. Federalist.. |73 *T3 65 64 1 Charles C. Pinckney John Jay. Previous to the election of 1804 each elector voted for two candidates for President ; the one receiving the highest number of votes, if a majority, wai declared elected President ; and the next mghest vice-President. t Three States out of thirteen did not vote. viz. : New York, which had not passed an elec- toral law ; and North Carolina and Rhode Island, which had not adopted the Constitution. t There having been a tie vote, the choice devolved upon the House of Representative*. A choice was made on th 36th ballot, which was as follow* : Jefferson Oeorgia, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Vermont, and Virginia 10 States : Burr Connecticut, Massachusetts, New UuBipsilire, and. Rhode island. ~4 Stotea j BlankDelaware and South Cwoliut-2 States. 644 POPULAR AND ELECTORAL VOTES. 1 F / s I W | POLITICAL PABTY. PKKSIDBNTO. VlCB-PHBMDKNT8. CANDIDATES. VOTB. CANDIDATES. Elect. Vote. States. Popular. Electoral 1804 1808 1812 1816 1820 1824 1828 1832 1836 17 17 18 19 24 24 24 21 170 170 218 221 235 261 261 288 29! Republican Federalist. . Republican Federalist. . Thomas Jefferson . . r> 162 122 47 6 George Clinton. . Rufus King George Clinton. . Rnfus King John Langdon . . James Madison. James Monroe.. 162 14 us 47 a 3 3 1 131 88 1 183 ~5 4 3 4 218 8 4 1 1 3 182 30 24 13 9 S 1 171 '7 189 49 11 7 30 2 147 77 47 23 Charles C. Pinckney James Madison. .. 2 1-.' Charles C. Piuckney George Clinton. 1 Republican. Federalist. . Vacancy 1 James Madison De Witt Clinton.... 11 7 128 89 1 Elbridge Gerry.. Jared Ingersoll. . Vacancy Republican. Federalist. . James Monroe Rufus King it; 188 34 D. D. Tompkin*. John E. Howard James Ross John Marshall . . Robt. G. Harper. Republican. Opposition. Vacancies 4 James Monroe John Q. Adams 24 J31 1 D. D. Tompkins. Rich. Stockton. . Daniel Rodney. Robt. G. Harper Richard Rush... Republican. Coalition. . . Republican. Republican. Vacancies .... n Andrew Jackson. . . John O. Adams Wm. H. Crawford. . Henry Clay 10 8 3 3 155,872 105,821 44,282 46,587 *')!) 84 41 37 John C. Calhonn Nathan Sanford . Nathaniel Macon Andrew Jackson M. Van Buren... Henry Clay Democratic Nat. Repub. l Vacancy Andrew Jackson. . . John Q. Adams 15 9 647,231 609,097 178 S3 John C. Calhoun Richard Rush. .. William Smith.. M. Van Bnren. .. John Sergeant. . . Henry Lee Democratic Nat. Repub. Andrew Jackson. . . Henry Clay ir. 7 l l 687,502 630,189 33,108 219 49 11 7 John Floyd ... 1 Anti-Mason William Wirt.... ) Amos Ellmaker. William Wilkini Democratic. Whig ; Whig... Vacancies 2 Martin Van Buren . Wm. H. Harrison 1 Hugh L. White.. 1 Daniel Webster., [ W. P. Mangum... j ir 1 i i 761,549 736,656 170 73 2ti 14 11 R. M. Johnsont. Francis Granger. John Tyler William Smith.. Whig Whig No choice having been made by the Electoral College, the choice devolved upon the House of Representatives. A choice wai made on the first ballot, which was ua follows : Adams Connecticut, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts Mis- souri, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Vermont 18 States Jackson- Alabama, IndidHa, Mississippi, New Jersey, Pennsylvania. South Carolina, and Tennessee 7 States ; Crawford Delaware, Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia* States. t No candidate having received a nialority of the votes of the Electeral College, the oen- u clouted K. M, Joimsoi) Vice-PreiiiMii, who recwv*U33voU; FrauewUwugcr retired 1C. POPULAR AND ELECTORAL VOTES. 645 1 r S 55 "5 o fc E 1 EH POLTTTCAL PAKTT. PRESIDENTS. VIOE-PKBSIDBNTS. CANDIDATES. VOTE. CANDIDATES. 1 ~t 234 -IS 'ii i 170 105 t a Popular. "3 i 1840 1844 1848 1852 1856 1860 1864 1868 1872 1876 188 26 26 30 31 31 33 *36 t37 37 38 )| 3f 294 275 290 296 296 303 314 317 366 369 36C Whig Democratic Liberty Wm. H. Harrison . . Martin Van Buren. James G. Birney... 19 7 1,275,017 1,128,702 7,059 234 CO John Tyler R. M. Johnson . . L. W. "Tazeweli. James K. Polk.. Geo. M. Dallas.. T. Frelinghuysen Democratic Whig James K. Polk Henry Clay 15 11 1,337,243 1,299,068 62,300 1,360,101 1,220,544 291,263 1,601,474 1,386,578 156,149 1.838.169 1,341,264 874,534 1,866,352 845.763 589,581 1,375,157 2,216,067 1,808,725 170 105 Liberty Whig James G. Birney. . . Zachary Taylor Lewis Cass 15 15 27 4 163 127 254 42 174 114 180 72 39 12 212 21 81 Millard Fillmore Wm. O. Butler. . Chas. F. Adams. Wm. R. King... Wm. A. Graham Geo. W.Julian.. J. C. Breckinr'ge Wm. L.Dayton. A. J. Douelson. . Hannibal Hamlin Joseph Lane Edward Everett. H. V. Johnson.. Andrew Johnson G. H. Pendleton. 16f 127 354 42 174 114 8 180 72 39 13 212 21 81 214 80 23 286 47 5 5 3 1 1 14 185 184 Democratic Free Soil... Democratic Whig Martin Van Buren. . Franklin Pierce Winfleld Scott John P. Hale Democratic Republican. American . . Republican. Democratic. Cons. Union Ind. Dem. . . Republican. Democratic Republican. Democratic. Republican. Dem. & Lib. Democratic. Temp'rance James Buchanan. . . John C. Fremont.. Mil lard Fillmore. . . Abraham Lincoln.. J. C. Breckinridge. . John Bell 19 11 1 17 11 3 2 22 3 11 S. A. Douglas Abraham Lincoln.. Geo. B. McClellan. . Vacancies Ulysses S. Grant. . . Horatio Seymour . . Vacancies 26 8 o 3,015,071 2,709,613 214!'schuyler Colfax. 80 F. P. Blair, Jr... 23 Ulysses S. Grant... Horace Greeley.... Charles O'Couor. . . James Black Thos. A. Hendricks 34 6 3,597,070 2,834,079 29,408 5,608 28 '42 18 2 -J Henry Wilson. . . B. Gratz Brown . Geo. W. Julian.. iA. H. Colquitt... John M. Palmer. T. E. Bramlette. ;W. S. Groesbeek Willis B.Machen N. P. Banks B. Gratz Brown Charles J. Jenkins. David Davis Republican. Democratic. Greenback.. Prohibition j Not Counted. . . Rutherford B.Hayes Samuel J.Tilden... Peter Cooper 21 17 4,033,950 4,284,885 81,740 185 184 Wm. A. Wheeler T. A. Hendricks Green Clay Smith.. Scattering 9,522 2,636 4,449.053 4,442,035 307.306 12,576 ... KepuDflcan Democratic [Greenback. .James A. Garfleld... Winneld S.Hancock James B. Weaver... . Scattering _.. 19 19 214 155 Chester A. Arthur Wm. H. English. B. J. Chambers.. 21* 155 * Eleven States did not vote, viz.: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mis iasippi. North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. t Three States did not vote, viz.: Mississippi, Texas, and Virginia. t Three electoral votes of Georgia cast for Horace Oreelay, and the votes ef Arkansas, and Louisiana, 8, cast for U. S. Grant, were rejected. If all had been included in thecount the ele*al ?ot would have bea 300 for U. 8, Grant, and, W for opposing casdid*tfcs. 46 NATIONAL ELECTIONS. THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. The Presidential election will take place on Tuesday, November 4th, 1884. The Constitution prescribes that each State shall appoint, in such manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors equal to the whole number of Senators and Repre^ntatives to which the State may be entitled in Congress, ^rer the election this year the electors by States will be as follows : States. Electoral States. Electoral Vote. Vote. Alabama 10 Missouri 16 Arkansas 7 Nebraska 5 California 8 Nevada ... 3 Colorado 3 New Hampshire 4 Connecticut 6 New Jersey 9 Delaware 3 New York 36 Florida . 4 North Carolina n Georgia 12 Ohio 23 Illinois 22 Oregon 3 Indiana 15 Pennsylvania 30 Iowa 13 Rhode Island 4 Kansas 9 South Carolina 9 Kentucky 13 Tennessee 12 Louisiana 8 Texas 13 Maine 6 Vermont 4 Maryland 8 Virginia.. 12 Massachusetts 14 West Virginia 6 Michigan 13 Wisconsin n Minnesota 7) Mississippi 9 Total 401 Necessary to a choice, 201. No Senator or Representative, or person holding an office of profit or trust under the United States, shall be an elector. In all the States, the laws thereof direct that the people shall choose the electors. The Constitution declares that the day when electors are chosen shall be the same throughout the United States. The electors shall meet in their respective States on the first Wednesday in December, and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom at least shall not be an inhabitant of the same State as themselves. QUALIFICATIONS FOR VOTERS. QUALIFICATIONS FOR VOTERS. 647 STATES. g < Requirement as to Citizenship. Residence in > Registration. rt C/2 & a 3 o U Alabama Arkansas 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 21 Citizens or declared intention. Citizens or declared intention. Actual citizens.. I yr. I yr. I yr. 6 mo iyr. I yr. I yr. I yr. I yr. 6 mo 6 mo 6 mo 2yrs iyr. 3 mo I yr. I vr. 3 mo 6 mo 9ods No law. Prohibited. Required. Required. Required. Not required. Required. No law. Required. No law. Required. Req'd in cities Not required. No law. Required. Required. Required. Required. Required. Required. Req'd in cities Required. Required. Required. Req'd in cities Req'd in cities Required. Not required. Required. Required. Required. Not required. Prohibited. Required. Required. Prohibited. Required. California .... Colorado Citizens or declared intention. Actual citizens Connecticut... Delaware ; Florida Georgia 6mo I mo 6 mo 6 mo gods oods 6ods iyr. 6 mo 6 mo Actual County taxpayers f United States citizens or "1 \ declared intention / Actual citizens Illinois Actual citizens Indiana.. . . Citizens or declared intention. Actual citizens Iowa Kansas Citizens or declared intention. Free white male citizens.. Kentucky Louisiana Citizens or declared intention. Actual citizens Actual citizens.. . Maine Maryland Massachusetts. Michigan Citizens Citizens or declared intention. Citizens or declared intention. Actual citizens. 3 mo 4mo 6 mo 6 mo 6 mo Minnesota Mississippi. ... Missouri. I mo 6ods 3ods 5 mo 4 mo gods Citizens or declared intention. Citizens or declared intention. Citizens or declared intention. Actual citizens Nebraska Nevada.. N. Hampshire New Jersey... New York N. Carolina... Ohio Actual citizens . ... yr. yr. yr. Actual citizens Actual citizens Actual citizens vr. Oregon... Citizens or declared intention. Actual citizens Actual tax-paying citizens Actual citizens mo yr. yr- yr- yr. yr- vr. 6ods 6 mo 6 mo Pennsylvania . Rhode Island S. Carolina Tennessee Texas Actual citizens Citizens or declared intention. Actual citizens Vermont Virginia W.Virginia... Wisconsin Actual citizens vr. Actual citizens yr. yr. 6ods Citizens or declared intention. NOTE. In several States women are permitted to vote on the school questions, seleo tion of directors, etc. 648 IfOMES OF THE PR 'KS/r>E.\'TS. PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES, Presi- dential Term. Name. Qualified. Born. Died. I 2 3 4 6 8 9 10 ii 12 13 14 g 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 George Washington.. George Washington.. John Adams April 30, 1789 March 4, 1793 March 4, 1797 March 4, 1801 March 4, 1805 March 4, 1809 March 4, 1813 March 4, 1817 March 5, 1821 March 4, 1825 March 4, 1829 March 4, 1833 March 4, 1837 March 4, 1841 April 6, 1841 March 4, 1845 March 5, 1849 July 9, 1850 March 4, 1853 March 4, 1857 March 4, 1861 March 4, 1865 .April 15, 1865 March 4, 1869 March 4, 1873 March 5, 1877 March 4, 1881 Sept'r 20, 1 88 1 Feb. 22, 1732 Oct. 19 1735, April 2, 1743 March 5, 1751 April 28, 1758 July II, 1767 Mar. 15, 1767 Dec. 5, 1782 Feb. 9, 1773 Mar. 29, 1790 Nov. 2, 1795 Nov. 24, 1 784 fan. 7, 1800 Nov. 23, 1804 April 22, 1791 Feb. 12, 1809 Dec. 29, 1808 April 27, 1822 Oct. 4, 1822 Nov. 19, 1831 Oct. 5, 1830 Dec. 14, 1799 July 4, 1826 July 4, 1826 fune 28, 1836 July 4, 1831 Feb. 23, 1848 June 8, I 45 July 24, 1862 April 4, 1841 Jan. 17, 1862 June 15, 1849 July 9, 1850 Oct. 8 1869 June I, 1868 April 15, 1865 July 30,1875 Sept. 19, 1 88 1 Thomas Jefferson .^ Thomas Jefferson. .... fames Madison James Madison James Monroe Tames Monroe ... John Quincy Adams. Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson Martin Van Buren... Wm. H. -Harrison.* John Tyler fames K. Polk.. Zachary Taylor* Millard Fillmore Franklin Pierce James Buchanan ... . Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln *.. Andrew Johnson Ulysses S. Grant . ... Ulysses S. Grant Rutherford B. Hayes James A. Garfield* . . . Chester A. Arthur Total number of incumbents, 21. Died in office. HOMES OF THE PRESIDENTS. Native State. Whence Elected. Virginia. Massachusetts Massachusetts. Virginia. Madison Monroe H Massachusetts. Jackson Tcnn^s-ee. inn Buren New York ;New York. Harrison Virginia Ohio. [Virginia. North Carolina .Tennessee. Tyler.. Polk Taylor Virgin! i Louisiana. Fillmore ^. New York New York. , Pierce New Hampshire... New Hampshire. Buchanan. _ Pennsylvania Pennsylvania. Lincoln ' Kentucky Illinois. Johnson North Carolina Tennessee. Grant Ohio _ Illinois. Hayes Ohio. Garfield , " .. , " Arthur >J.-, V4, M^ur Vorlc VICE-PRESIDENTS. VICE-PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES. Vice- Fres. Term. Name. Qualified. Born. Died. I John Adams June 1, 1780 1 2 John Adams Dec. 2, 1 7Q7 f 1735 1826 7 March 4, 1 797 1747 1826 A March 4, 1801 17^6 1836 C George Clinton March 4, 1805 ~t 6 George Clinton* March 4, 1800 | r 739 1812 William H. Crawfordf April 10, 1812 1772 1874 7 Elbridge Gerry* March 4, 1813 1744. 1814 John Gaillard* Nov. 25, 1814 8->A 8 Daniel D. Tompkins March 4, 1817 "1 q Daniel D. Tompkins March 5, 1821 J 1744 1825 lo John C. Calhoun March 4, 1825 "1 II John C CalhounJ March 4, 1829 / 1782 1850 Hugh L. Whitef Dec. 28, 1832 1777 1840 12 Martin VanBuren March 4, 1833 1782 1862 13 Richard M. Johnson March 4, 1877 1780 iSso 14 John Tyler March 4, 1841 I7QO 1862 Samuel L. Southard j~ .. April 6, 1841 1787 1 84^ Willie P. Mangumj- May 31, 1842 I7Q2 1861 15 George M. Dallas March 4, 1845 I7Q2 1864 16 Millard Fillmore? March 5, 1849 I800 1869 William R. Kingf July II. 1 8 so "I 17 William R. King* March 4, 1853 / 1786 1853 David R. Atchison-j- April 18. 1853 1807 Jesse D. Bright t. . . Dec. 5, 1854 1812 78 John C. Breckenridge March 4, 1857 1821 i87C 19 Hannibal Hatnlin March 4, 1861 1809 20 March 4, 1865 1808 1875 Lafayette S. Fosterf April 15, 1865 1806 Benjamin F. Wadef March 2, 1867 1800 21 Schuyler Colfax March 4, 1869 1823 22 March 4, 1873 1812 1875 Thomas W. Ferry! Nov. 22, 1875 1827 27 March 5, 1877 1819 24 Chester A. Arthur $. March 4, 1881 1830 David Davis f. ... Oct. 13, 1881 1815 George F. Edmunds! March 3, 1883 1828 * Died in office, f Acting Vice-President and President pro tew, of the Senate. \ Resigned the Vice-Presidency. (S Became President. CABINETS OF THE PRESIDENTS. GEORGE WASHINGTON: April 30, 1789 March 4, 1797 (two terms). Secretary of State: Thomas Jefferson, appointed Sept. 26, 1789 '' " Edmund Randolph, " Jan. 2, 1794 " " Timothy Pickering, " Dec. 10, 1795 650 CAB1XETS OF THE Secretary of Treasury: Alexander Hamilton, appointed Sept. II, 1789 " " ' Oliver Wolcott, " Feb. 2, 1795 War: Henry Knox, " Sept. 12, 1789 " Timothy Pickering, Jan. 2, 1795 " " James McHenry, " Jan. 27, 1796 Postmaster -General; Samuel Osgood, " Sept. 26, 1789 " " Timothy Pickering, " Aug. 12, 1791 " " Joseph Habersham, " Feb. 25, 1795 Attorney- General: Edmund Randolph, " Sept. 26, 1789 " " William Bradford, Jan. 27, 1794 " " Charles Lee, " Dec. 10, 1795 JOHN ADAMS: March 4, 1797 March 4, 1801 (one term). Secretary of State : Timothy Pickering, appointed March 4, 1797 " John Marshall, " May 13, 1800 " Treasury: Oliver Wolcott, " March 4, 1797 " " Samuel Dexter, " Jan. I, 1 80 1 " War: James McHenry, ' March 4, 1797 ' " Samuel Dexter, ' May 13, 1800 " Rodger Griswold, ' Feb. 3, 1801 " Navy: Benjamin Stoddart, ' May 21, 1798 Postmaster-General: Joseph Habersham, ' March 4, 1 797 Attorney -General: Charles Lee, " March 4, 1797 " " Theophilus Parsons, " Feb. 20, 1801 THOMAS JEFFERSON: March 4, 1801 March t ,, 1809 (two tejrms). Secretary of State : James Madison, appointed March 5, 1801 Treasury: Albert Gallatin, " May 14, 1801 " War: Henry Dearborn, " March 5, 1801 " Navy: Benjamin Stoddert, March 4, 1801 '* " Robert Smith, July 15, 1801 '* " J. Crowninshield, March 3, 1805 Postmaster- General : Joseph Habersham, March 4, iSoi " " Gideon Granger, Nov. 28, 1801 Attorney- General: Levi Lincoln, March 5, 1801 " " Robert Smith, March 3, 1805 " John Breckinridge, Aug. 7, 1805 " " Caesar A. Rodney, Jan. 28, 1807 JAMES MADISON; March 4, 1809 March 4, iJ ^17 (two terms). Secretary of State : Robert Smith, appo nted March 6, 1809 " James Monroe, April 2, 1811 Treasury: Albert Gallatin, ' March 4, 1809 " George W. Campbell, Feb. 9, 1814 " " Alexander J. Dallas, Oct. 6, 1814 " " William H. Crawford, Oct. 22, 1816 War: William Eustis, March 7, 1809 " John Armstrong, Jan. 13, 1813 " " James Monroe, Sept. 27, 1814 William H. Crawford, Aug. I, 1815 " Navy: Paul Hamilton, March 7, 1809 " " William Jones, Jan. 12, 1813 " " B. W. Crowninskield, Dec. 19, 1814 CABINETS OF THE PRESIDENTS, 651 Postmaster- General: Gideon Granger, appointed March 4, iSc*| " " Return J. Meigs, Jr., " March 17, 1814 Attorney- General: Caesar A, Rodney, " March 4, 1809 William Pinkney, " Dec. II, 1811 Richard Rush, " Feb. 10, 1814 JAMES MONROE: March 4, 1817 March 4, 1825 (two terms). Secretary of State: John Quincy Adams, appointed March 5, 1817 " Treasury William II. Crawford, " March 5, 1817 War : George Graham, " ad interim. " " John C. Calhoun, Oct. 8, 1817 " Navy : B. W. Crowninshield, March 4, 1817 Smith Thompson, Nov. 9, 1818 Samuel L. Southard, Sept. 16, 1823 Postmaster- General : Return J. Meigs, Jr., March 4, 1817 << John McLean, June 26, 1823 Attorney- General : Richard Rush, March 4, 1817 " " William Wirt, Nov. 13, 1817 JOHN QUINCY ADAMS : March 4, 1825 March 4, 829 (one term). Secretary of Slate : Henry Clay, app nted March 7, 1825 " Treasury . Richard Rush, March 7, 1825 War: James Barbour, March 7, 1825 " " Peter B. Porter, May 26, 1828 " Navy : Samuel L. Southard, March 4, 1825 Postmaster- General: John McLean, March 4, 1825 Attorney- General : William Wirt, March 4, 1825 ANDREW JACKSON: March 4, 1829 March 4, 183 (two terms). Secretary of State : Martin Van Buren, appo nted March 6, 1829 " " Edward Livingston, May 24, 1831 Louis McLane, May 29, 1833 << John Forsyth, June 27, 1834 " Treasury . Samuel D. Ingham, March 6, 1829 Louis McLane, Aug. 2, 1831 William J. Duane, May 29, 1833 . Roger B. Taney, Sept. 23, 1833 Levi Woodbury, June 27, 1834 War: John H. Eaton, March 9, 1829 Lewis Cass, Aug. I, 1831 " Navy : John Branch, March 9, 1829 11 Levi Woodbury, May 23, 1831 " " Mahlon Dickerson, June 30, 1834 Postmaster- General: William T. Barry, March 9, 1829 Amos Kendall, May I, 1835 Attorney- General: John M. Berrien, March 9, 1829 Roger B. Taney, July 20, 1831 " " Benjamin F. Butler, Nov. 15, 1833 MARTIN VAN BUREN : March 4, 1837 March 4, 1841 (one term). Secretary of State : John Forsyth, appointed March 4, 1837 " Treasury Levi Woodbury, " March 4. 1837 War: Joel R. Poinsett, " March 7, 1837 652 OABINETS OF THE PRESIDENTS. Secretary of Navy : Postmaster- General : Attorney- General: Mahlon Dickerson, James K. Paulding, Amos Kendal, John M. Niles, Benjamin F. Butler, Felix Grundy, Henry D. Gilpin, appointed March 4, 1837 " June 25, 1838 " March 4, 1837 " May 25, 1840 " March 4, 1837 " July 5, 1838 " Jan. n, 1840 WILLIAM H. HARRISON: March 4, 1841 April 6, 1841 (partial term). Secretary of State : " Treasury War: " Navy: Postmaster- General: Attorney- General : Daniel Webster, Thomas Ewing, John Bell, George E. Badger, Francis Granger, John J. Crittenden, appointed March 5, 1841 " March 5, 1841 March 5, 1841 March 5, 1841 March 6, 1841 March 5, 1841 JOHN TYLER : April 6, 1841 March 4, 1845 (partial term). Secretary of State : Treasury War: Navy Postmaster- General: Attorney- General: Daniel Webster, Hugh S. Legare, Abel P. Upshur, John C. Calhoun, Thomas Ewing, Walter Forward, John C. Spencer, George M. Bibb, John Bell, John C. Spencer, James M. Porter, William Wilkins, George E. Badger, Abel P. Upshur, David Henshaw, Thomas W. Gilmer, John Y. Mason, Francis Granger, Charles A. Wickliffe, John J. Crittenden, Hugh S. Legare, John Nelson, appointed April 6, 1841 May 9, 1843 July 24, 1843 " March 6, 1844 " April 6, 1841 " Sept. 13, 1841 " March 3, 1843 " June 15, 1844 " April 6, 1841 " Oct. 12, 1841 " March 8, 1843 June 15, 1844 April 6, 1841 Sept. 13, 1841 July 24, 1843 Feb. 15, 1844 March 14, 1844 April 6, 1841 Sept. 13, 1841 April 6, 1841 Sept. 13, 1841 July I, 1843 JAMES K. POLK: March 4, 1845 March 5, 1849 (one term). Secretary of State : Treasury . War: " Navy : Postmaster- General : Attorney- General : James Buchanan, Robert J. Walker, William L. Marcy, George Bancroft, John Y. Mason, Cave Johnson, John Y. Mason, Nathan Clifford, Isaac Toucey, appointed March 6, 1845 " March 6, 1845 " March 6, 1845 " March 10, 1845 " Sept. 9, 1846 . March 6, 1845 " March 6, 1845 " Oct. 17, 1846 " June 21, 1848 CABINETS OF THE PRESIDENTS. ZACHARY TAYLOR : March 5, 1849 J ul y 9 1850 (partial term). 653 Secretary of State : " Treasury . " War : " Navy : '' Interior : Postmaster- General : Attorney- General : MlLLARD FlLLMORE: Secretary of State : " Treasury War : " Navy : " Interior : Postmaster- General : Attorney- General : John M. Clayton, William M. Meredith, George W. Crawford, William B. Preston, Thomas Ewing, Jacob Collamer, Reverdy Johnson, July 9, 1850 March 4, Daniel Webster, Edward Everett, Thomas Corwin, Charles M. Conrad, William A. Graham, John P. Kennedy, Alex. H. H. Stuart, Nathan K. Hall, Samuel D. Hubbard, John J. Crittenden, FRANKLIN PIERCE: March 4, 1853 March 4, Secretary of State : " Treasury War: " Navy: " Interior: Postmaster- General: Attorney- General: William L. Marcy, James Guthrie, Jefferson.Davis, James C. Dobbin, Robert McClelland, James Campbell, Caleb Gushing, appointed March 7, 1849 " March 8, 1849 March 8, 1849 " March 8, 1849 " March 8, 1849 " March 8, 1849 " March 8, 1849 1853 (partial term). rppointed July 22, 1850 " Nov. 6, 1852 " July 23, 1850 Aug. 15, 1850 " July 22, 1850 July 22, 1852 Sept. 12, 1850 July 23, 1850 Aug. 31, 1852 July 22, 1850 18^7 (one term). appointed March 7, 1853 March 7, 1853 March 5, 1853 March 7, 1853 March 7, 1853 March 5, 1853 March 7, 1853 JAMES BUCHANAN: March 4, 1857 March 4, 1861 (one term). Secretary of State. " War: " Navy: " Interior: Postmaster- General: Attorney- General: Lewis Cass, Jeremiah S. Black, Treasury: Howell Cobb, ". Philip F. Thomas, John A. Dix, John B. Floyd, Joseph Holt, Isaac Toucey, Jacob Thompson, Aaron V. Brown, Joseph Holt, Horatio King, Jeremiah S. Black, Edwin M. Stanton, appointed March 6, 1857 Dec. 17, 1860 March 6, 1857 Dec. 12, 1860 Jan. II, 1861 March 6, 1857 Jan. 1 8, 1 86 1 March 6, 1857 March 6, 1857 March 6, 1857 March 14, 1859 Feb. 12, 1 86 1 March 6, 1857 Dec. 20, 1860 ABRAHAM LINCOLN : March 4, 1861 April 15, 1865 (one term and a part). Secretary of State : William H. Seward, appointed March 5, 1861 " ' Treasury: Salmon P. Chase, " March 7, 1861 654 CABINETS OF THE PRESIDENTS. Secretary of Treasury : William P. Fessenden, Hugh McCulloch, Simon Cameron, Edwin M. Stanton, Gideon Welles, Caleb B. Smith, John P. Usher, Montgomery Blair, William Dennison, Edward Bates, Titian J. Coflfey, ad int., '' " James Speed, ANDREW JOHNSON: April 15, 1865 March 4, 1869 War: " Navy : " Interior: Postmaster- General : << Attorney- General : appointed July I, 1864 ' March 7, 1865 " March 5, 1861 '' Jan. 15, 1862 March 5, 1861 March 5, 1861 Jan. 8, 1863 March 5, 1861 Sept. 24, 1864 March 5, 1861 June 22, 1863 Dec. 2, 1864 partial term), appo nted April 15, 1865 March 5, 1869 April 15, 1865 April 15, 1865 Aug. 12, 1868 Feb. 21, 1868 May 28, 1868 April 15, 1865 April 15, 1865 May 15, 1865 July 27, 1866 April 15, 1865 July 25, 1866 April 15, 1865 July 23, 1866 July 15, 1868 ULYSSES S. GRANT: March 4, 1869 March 5, 1877 (two terms). Secretary of State : Hamilton Fish, appointed March n, 1869 March n, 1869 March 17, 1873 June 4, 1 674 July 7, 1876 March n, 1869 Oct. 25, 1869 March 8, 1876 May 22, 1876 March 5, 1869 June 25, 1869 March 5, 1869 Nov. i, 1870 Oct. 19, 1875 March 5, 1869 Aug. 24, 1874 July 12, 1876 March 5, 1869 June 23, 1870 Dec. 14, 1871 April 26, 1875 May 29, 1876 Secretary of State : << '' Treasury " War: Navy : Interior . Postmaster- General : i< Attorney- General : William H. Seward, Elihu B. Washburne, Hugh McCulloch, Edwin M. Stanton, Ulysses S. Grant, ad int., Lorenzo Thomas, John M. Schofield, Gideon Welles, John P. Usher, James Harlan, Orville H. Browning, William Dennison, Alexander W. Randall, James Speed, Henry Stanbery, William M. Evarts, Treasury : George S. Boutwell, ' " William A. Richardson, 1 " Benjamin H. Bristow, ' " Lot M. Morrill, 1 War : John A. Rawlins, ' " William W. Belknap, ' " Alphonso Taft, ' " James D. Cameron, " Navy : Adolph E. Borie, " " George M. Robeson, " Interior: Jacob D. Cox, " " Columbus Delano, " " Zachariah Chandler, Postmaster- Genera I : John A. J. Creswell, Marshall Jewell, " " James N. Tyner. Attorney-General: E. Rock wood Hoar, Amos T. Akerman, " " George H. Williams, " " Edwards Pierrepont, " " Alphonso Taft, COMMANDERS OF THE U. S. ARMY. 655 RUTHERFORD B. HAYES : March 5, 1877 March 4, 1881 (one term). Secretary of State : '' Treasury " War : it Navy : (i << " Interior : Postmaster- General : Attorney- General : William M. Evarts, John Sherman, George W. McCrary, Alexander Ramsey, Richard W. Thompson, Nathan Goff, Jr., Carl Schurz, David McK. Key, Horace Maynard, Charles Devens, appointed March 12, 1877 " March 8, 1877 " March 12, 1877 Dec. 10, 1879 March 12, 1877 Jan. 6, 1 88 1 March 12, 1877 March 12, 1877 June 2, 1880 March 12, 1877 JAMES A. GARFIELD: March 4, 1881 September 19, 1881 (partial term). Secretary of State : '' Treasury . " War : " Navy : " Interior : Postmaster- General : Attorney- General : James G. Elaine, William Windom, Robert T. Lincoln, William H. Hunt, Samuel J. Kirkwood, Thomas L. James, Wayne MacVeagh, appointed March 5, 1881 " March 5, 1881 " March 5, 1881 " March 5, 1881 " March 5, 1881 " March 5, 1881 " March 5, 1881 CHESTER A. ARTHUR, September 20, 1881- Secretary of State : " Treasury : " War : " Navy : " Interior : Postmaster- General: Attorney- General : F. T. Frelinghuysen, Charles J. Folger, Robert T. -Lincoln, William E. Chandler, Henry M. Teller, Timothy O. Howe, Benjamin H. Brewster, appointed Dec. 12, 1881 " Oct. 27, 1 88 1 " Sept. 20, 1 88 1 " April i, 1882 " April 6, 1882 " Dec. 20, 1 88 1 " Dec. 19, 1 88 1 COMMANDERS OF THE U. S. ARMY 1775-1! Major-General George Washington iP ne I5 ' *775' to December 23, 1783. Major-General Henry Knox December 23, 1783, to June 20, 1784. Lieutenant-Colonel Josiah Harmer, gener- al-in-chief by brevet September, 1788, to March, 1791. Major-General Arthur St. Clair March 4, 1791, to March, 1792. Major-General Anthony Wayne April n, 1792, to December 15, 1796. Major-General James Wilkinson December 15, 1796, to July. 1798. Lieutenant-General George Washington. ..July 3, 1798, to his death, December 14, 1799. Major-General James Wilkinson .June, 1800, to January, 1812. Major-General Henry Dearborn January 27, 1812, to June, 1815. Major-General Jacob Brown June, 1815, to February 21, 1828 Major-General Alexander Macomb May 24, 1828, to June, 1841. Major-General Winfield Scott(brevet Lieu- tenant-General) June, 1841, to November i, 1861. Major-General George B.McClellan November i, 1861, to March n, 1862. Major-General Henry W. Halleck July u, 1862, to March 12, 1864. Lieutenant-General Ulysses S. Grant March 12 1864, to July 25, 1866, and as Gen- eral to March 4, 1869. General William T. Sherman March 4. 1869, to November i, 1883. Lieutenant-General Philip H. Sheridan ....Since November i, 1883. CHIEF OFFICERS OF THE U. S. NAVY. CHIEF OFFICERS OF THE U. S. ARMY. Entered the Army. General of the Army ......... Lieut.-Gen. Philip H.Sheridan ........ 1853 Major-Generals .................. Winfield S. Hancock ..................... 1844 John M. Schofield ......................... 1853 John Pope .................................. 1842 Brigadier-Generals ............. Oliver O. Howard ........................ 1854 Alfred H. Terry ...................... ...... 1865 Christopher C. Augur .................... 1843 George Crook .............................. 1852 Nelson A. Miles ........................... 1866 Ranold S. Mackenzie... 1862 CHIEF OFFICERS OF THE U. S. NAVY. NAME. Whence Ap- pointed. Original Entry into Service. Rank. David D Porter. Penn... 1820 Admiral. Stephen C. Rowan Ohio 1826 Vice-Admiral. N. Y.... 1874 1 Edward T. Nichols Ga 1836 N. Y 18-57 N. Y 1838 \ Rear- Admirals. Charles H. Baldwin N. Y.... l8lO Robert W. Shufeldt N. Y. ... 18^0 Thomas Pattison.. . N. Y.... 18 Edward Simpson N. Y 1840 William G. Temple Vt 1840 Thomas S. Phelps Maine 1840 Clark H Wells Penn 1840 S P Quackenbush. N. Y 1840 Earl English N. J D. C 1840 1841 N. Y 1841 Samuel R. Franklin Edward Y McCauley Penn Penn 1841 1841 J.C. P. de Krafft Ill 1841 \ Commodores. Oscar C. Badger Stephen B. Luce Penn N. Y 1841 1841 Ind 1841 Alexander A. Semmes Md 1841 William T. Truxtun Penn 1841 Ill 1841 William K. Mayo James E. Jowett T. Scott Fillebrown Va Ky Maine.... 1841 1841 1841 Johnuss H. Rell Md 1841 SPEAKERS. 657 SPEAKERS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.* Name. State. Con- gress Term of Service. F. A. Muhlenberg Jonathan Trumbull F. A. Muhlenberg Jonathan Dayton Pennsylvania ... Connecticut Pennsylvania.... ISt 2d 3d 4 th S th 6th 7 th Sth 9th loth nth i2th 1 3th 1 4th 1 6th i6th 1 7th iSth I9th 20th 21St 22d 23d 23d 24th 25th 26th 27th 2 8th 3oth 3ist 33d 34th 35th 36th 37th 38th 39th 4oth 4ist 43d 44th 44th 45th 4 6th 47 th 48th April i, 1789, to March 4, 1791 October 24, 1791, to March 4, 1793 December 2, 1703, to March 4, 1795 December 7, 1795, to March 4, 1797 May 15, 1797, to March 3, 1799 December 2, 1799, to March 4, 1801 December 7, 1801, to March 4, 1803 October 17, 1803, to March 4, 1805 December 2, 1805, to March 4, 1807 October 26, 1807, to March 4, 1809 May 22, 1809, to March 4, 1811 November 4, 1811, to March 4, 1813 May 24, 1813, to Jan'y 19, 1814 January 19, 1814, to March 4, 1815 December 4, 1815, to March 4, 1817 December i, 1817, to March 4, 1819 December 6, 1819, to May 15, 1820 November 15. 1820, to March 4, 1821 December 4, 1821, to March 4, 1823 December i, 1823, to March 4, 1825 December 5, 1825, to March 4, 1827 December 3, 1827, to March 4, 1829 December 7, 1829, to March 4, 1831 December 5, 1831, to March 4, 1833 December 2, 1833, to June 2,1834 June 2, 1834, to March 4, 1835 December 7, 1835, to March 4, 1837 Septembers, 1837, to March 4, 1839 Decemberi6, 1839, to March 4, 1841 May 31, 1841, to March 4, 1843 December 4, 1843, to March 4, 1845 December i, 1845, to March 4, 1847 December 6, 1847, to March 4, 1849 December22, 1849,10 March 4, 1851 December i, 1851, to March 4, 1853 December 5, 1853, to March 4, 1855 February 2, 1856, to March 4, 1857 December 7, 1857, to March 4, 1859 February i, 1860, to March 4, 1861 July 4, 1861, to March 4, 1863 December 7, 1863, to March 4, 1865 December 4, 1865, to March 4, 1867 March 4, 1867, to March 4, 1869 March 4, 1869, to March 4, 1871 March 4, 1871, to March 4, 1873 December i, 1873, to March 4, 1875 December 6, 1875, to Aug. 20, 1876 December 4, 1876, to March 4, 1877 October 15, 1877, to March 4, 1879 March 18, 1879, to March 4, 1881 December 5, 1881, to March 4, 1883 December 3, 1883, to Theodore Sedgwick Massachusetts.... Nathaniel Macon 'North Carolina- Massachusetts.... Kentucky South Carolina. . Kentucky New York Henry Clay Henry Clay John W. Taylor Philip P Barbour Henry Clay John W. Taylor Andrew Stevenson John Bell James K. Polk Kentucky New York Virginia Tennessee Virginia ;... Kentucky Robert M. T. Hunter John White John W. Davis Indiana Robert C. Winthrop Massachusetts ... Howell Cobb Linn Boyd Georgia Kentucky Nathaniel P. Banks Massachusetts... James L. Orr South Carolina... Wm. Pennington Galusha A. Grow New Jersey Pennsylvania .... Michael C. Kerr Samuel J. Randall J. Warren Keifer John G. Carlisle Indiana Pennsylvania Ohio Kentucky * Not including Speakers pro tern. CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATION OF THE STATES. I. RATIO OF REPRESENTATIVES AND POPULATION. By Constitution, 1789 One to 30,000. First Census, from March 4th, 1793. Second " " " 1803.. Third " " " 1813.. 33,000. 33,000. 35,000. 658 CONGRESSIONAL RKPKESENTA TION. By Fourth Census, from March 4th, 1823 One to 40,000. Fifth Sixth Seventh Eighth Ninth Tenth '833. 1843- i?53. 1863 1873. 1883. 47,700. 70,680. 93.423. 127,381. 131,425- 154,325. II. REPRESENTATIVES FROM EACH STATE UNDER EACH CENSUS. STATES. Consti- tution, 1789. ist census 2d census -1 ^>c o jc % *S 8 | 10 i 7th census 8th census S3 -S3 *g 2g Connecticut 5 I 3 6 8 3 4 6 I 5 10 7 i 2 8 14 4 5 10 10 3 2 6 19 2 2 7 i 4 9 17 6 17 12 18 2 8 22 6 4 3 7 2 6 9 20 6 6 27 13 23 2 9 23 IO 6 6 6 6 i 7 9 13 6 6 34 3 26 2 9 22 12 5 9 H 3 i 3 3 7 i i 6 I 9 8 12 6 40 13 28 2 9 21 13 S 13 19 5 3 7 3 8 2 2 4 i 8 6 10 4 5 34 9 24 2 7 15 10 4 ii 21 7 7 10 4 7 4 5 i 3 4 I 8 6 ii 3 5 33 8 25 2 6 '3 10 3 10 21 7 9 ii 4 6 5 7 2 4 2 I 2 2 I 2 3 4 i 7 5 10 3 5 3i 7 24 2 4 II 9 3 8 19 6 H ii 5 5 5 9 3 6 3 i 6 2 I 4 6 i i I 4 I 9 6 ii 3 7 33 8 27 2 5 9 IO 3 10 20 8 '9 13 6 5 6 13 4 9 4 2 9 3 I 6 8 3 i i i _3_ 293 4 i 10 6 12 2 7 34 9 28 2 7 10 ii 2 10 21 8 20 13 6 4 7 14 5 ii 6 2 II 5 i ii 9 7 3 i i 4 325 Delaware Maryland Massachusetts New Hampshire New York North Carolina Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina. .. Virginia Tennessee Ohio Illinois Indiana Louisiana Maine Mississippi Arkansas Michigan Florida Iowa Minnesota Texas Wisconsin Kansas Colorado West Virginia.... Whole number 65 I5 141 181 213 240 223 237 243 SUPREME COURT. 659 Chief Justices and Associate Justices of the U. S. Supreme Court.* State Whence Appointed. Term of Service. Years of Service. John Jayf New York I78o-I7OC 6 John Rutledge f , South Carolina I78o-I7OI William Gushing Massachusetts 1789-1810 James Wilson $ Pennsylvania I78Q-I7Q8 John Blair } Virginia 1 78Q-I7Q6 Robert H Harrison f Maryland James Iredell North Carolina I7QO-I7QQ Thomas Johnson -J- William Patterson \ Maryland New Jersey..., I79I-I793 2 i-I South Carolina I7QC. I7QC Samuel Chase $ Maryland I796-l8l I if Oliver Ellsworth f Connecticut 1796-1801 c Bushrod Washington $ Virginia... 1798-1829 71 Alfred Moore j- North Carolina I7Oq-l8o4 c John Marshall Virginia 1801-1835 74 William Johnson f..... South Carolina 1804-1834 Brockholst Livingston 2 New York 1806-1823 17 Thomas Todd2 Kentucky . . 1807-1826 IQ Joseph Story 2 Massachusetts ... . 181 1-1845 Gabriel Duval } .... Maryland 1811-1836 ^f Smith Thompson \ New York 1827-1841; 22 Robert Trimble \ Kentucky 1826-1828 2 John McLean \ Ohio 1829-1861 Henry Baldwin $ Pennsylvania 1 830- 1 846 16 James M. Wayne | Georgia 1835-1867 72 Roger B. Taney $ Maryland ... 1836-1864 ?8 Philip P. Barbour \. Virginia 1836-1841 5 JohnCatron$ Tennessee 1837-1865 ?8 John McKinley Alabama 1877-1852 15 Peter V Daniel \ Virginia 1841-1860 iq Samuel Nelson f Levi Woodbury New York New Hampshire 1845-1872 1845-1851 27 6 Robert C. Grierf Pennsylvania 1846 1869 7,3 Benjamin R Curtis j~ Massachusetts 1851-1857 6 John A. Campbell f Alabama 1853-1861 8 Nathan Clifford g Maine 1858-1881 23 Noah H. Swaynef Ohio 1861-1881 20 Samuel F. Miller Iowa 1862- David Davisf 1862-1877 ]C Stephen J. Field California 1863- Salmon P Chase 2 Ohio 1864-1873 9 \Villiam Strong } Pennsylvania 1870-1880 10 Joseph P. Bradley New Jersey '1870- Ward Hunt New York 1872-1882 10 Morrison R "Waite Ohio 1874- John M. Harlan Kentucky 1877- William B Woods Georgia 1880- Stanley Matthews Horace Gray Ohio 1881- 1881- Samuel Blatchford . . . New York... 1882- * Chief Justices in heavy type, f Resigned. \ Presided one term, g Died in office. 66O WHERE OUR CHIEF OFFICERS CAME I- ROM. WHERE OUR CHIEF OFFICERS CAME FROM. From the beginning of the Government in 1789 to 1884. STATHS. Presidents. V ice- Presidents. Secretaries of State. Secretaries of Treasury. Secretaries of War. Secretaries of Navy. Secretaries of Interior. Postmasters- i , :, ...: Attorneys-fteneral. Supreme Court Ju Presidents pro tern. of Senate. \ o K s V _i & V) H Alabama I 2 ? c f i Colorado Connecticut.. I I 7 I I T 7 T 15 Delaware ? I I 4 Florida Georgia . . . T ? ?, I ? ? 7 I 14 Illinois _ ? I 7 I I I 8 Indiana I I I 2 2 I 7 ii Iowa f, 2 I 5 Kansas Kentucky 2 I 7. I 7 7 2 4 2T. Louisiana I I I f 4 Maine f I 2 I I I 8 Maryland I 2 T 7 2 e e 2 ?I Massachusetts 7 7 7 7 ,] C I C 4 ? 4 36 Michigan f T ? 6 Minnesota I i Mississippi T T I I 4 Missouri r I I 3 Nevada New Hampshire I I ? I 7 8 New Jersey.... T 7 7 f 2 New York 7 7 C 5 ? 7 6 f T 41 North Carolina 4 ? 3 I IO Ohio 7 4 3 7 7 e i 1 26 Oregon I t Pennsylvania I i 7 7 6 1, ? 6 4 3 3 1 7 2 South Carolina i 2 ?. T I 2 3 2 '4 Tennessee 7 i i 7 7 i I 2 2 16 Texas I i Vermont I 7 4 Virginia. 5 7 6 T. 4 I 5 6 4 40 West Virginia Wisconsin 2 i 7 Total ?i 7T> ?o 74. n 7O 14. TO 78 49 5 3 3 OUR REPRESENTATIVES ABROAD. 661 OUR REPRESENTATIVES ABROAD. COUNTRY. Name and Rank. Residence. alary. Argentine Republic Thomas O. Osborn, Min. Res Alphonso Taft,* E. E. and M. P Juenos Ayres $7,Soo -lenry White, Sec. Leg., and C. G Nicholas Fish, Minister Res Vienna 3>500 Bolivia Brazil .....'. Richard Gibbs, M. R. and C. G Thomas A. Osborne, E. E. and M. P. ^a Paz 5,000 Central American States Chili Charles B. Trail, Sec. Legation Henry C. Hall, E. E. and M. P C. A. Logan, E. E. and M. P iio de Janeiro Guatemala 1,800 10,000 [. Russell Young, E. E. and M. P Chester Holcombe, Sec. and Int Colombia Wm. L. Scruggs, Minister Res Lucius H. Fcote, E. E. and M. P Jogota 7,500 Wick'm Hoffman. M. R. and C. G.... 5,000 Levi P. Morton, E. E. and M. P Paris Paris -lenri Vignaud, zd Sec. Legation Aaron A. Sargent, E. E. and M. P.... Berlin 17,500 i. Sidney Everett, Sec. Legation Berlin 2,625 Chapman Coleman, zd S. Legation James R. Lowell, E. E. and M. P Berlin 2,000 Greece Hawaiian Islands.... Hayti ^m. J. Hoppin, See. Legation E. S. Nadal, 2d Sec. Legation Eugene Schuyler, M. R. and C. G lollin M. Daggett, Min. Res John M. Langston, M. R. and C. G.. London London Athens Honolulu Port au Prince 2,625 2,000 6,500 7,500 5,000 Wm. W. Astor, E. E. and M. P Rome 12,000 Lewis Richmond, Sec. of Leg. and C. G Japan lohn A. Bingham, E. E. and M. P.... justavus Goward, Sec. Legation Willis N. Whitney, Interpreter J. H. Smyth, M. R. and C. G.... Tokei (Yedo) Tokei (Yedo) I'okei (Yedo) Monrovia 12,000 2,500 2,500 5,000 Philip H. Morgan, E. E. and M. P... Mexico 12,000 Netherlands Henry H. Morgan, Sec. Legation Wm. L. Dayton, Minister Res VIexico The Hague 1,800 7,5 Paraguay and Uru guay Wm Williams, Charge d'Affaires S. G. W. Benjamin, Min. Res. and VIontevideo 5,000 Peru SethS. Phelps, E. E. and M. P John M. Francis, M. R. and C. G Lima Lisbon 10,000 5,000 Eugene Schuyler, M.R.andC. G Athens 6,500 St. Petersburg 17,500 Servia aiam George W. Wertz, Sec. Legation Eugene Schuyler, M. R. andC. G..... J. A. Halderman, M R.and C. G John W. Foster, E. E. and M. P St. Petersburg Athens Bangkok Madrid 2,625 6,500 5,000 12,000 Sweden and Norwa; Switzerland Turkey Venezuela , Dwight T. Reed, Sec. and C. G Wm. W. Thomas, Jr., Min. Res Michael J. Cramer, M. R. and C. G.. Lewis Wallace, E. E. and M. P G. Harris Heap. Sec. Leg. and C. G. A. A. Gargiulo, Interpreter Jehu Baker, Minister Res Madrid Stockholm Berne, Constantinople Constantinople Constantinople Caracas 3,000 7,500 5,090 7,500 3,500 3,000 7>5> 662 OUR REPRESENTATIVES FROM ABROAD. OUR REPRESENTATIVES FROM ABROAD COUNTRY. NAMK. Argentine Republic. Austria-Hungary Senor Don Louis L. Dominguez.* Senor Don Florencio L. Dominguez.f Baron Ignatz von Schaeffer (absent).* Count von Lippe Weissenfield.J Belgium 'Mr. Bounder de Melsbroeck.* Count Gaston d'Arschot.J Brazil Senhor J. G. do Amaral Valente.J Chili Senor Don Joaquin Godoy.* 1 Senor Don Federico Pinto. -j- China ;Mr. Cheng Tsao Ju.* Mr. Tsii Shau Pung.f Denmark... Mr. Carl Steen Anderson de Billie.g France Mr. Theodore Roustan (absent).* Mr. Horace Denaut.J Germany , Captain C. von Eisendscker.* Cuunt Lyden.f Great Britain jThe Honorable L. S. Sackville West.* Dudley E. Saurin, Esq.j- Hawaii Hayti.., Mr. H. A. P. Carter.* Mr. Stephen Preston.* Mr. Charles A. Preston.f Italy 'Baron de Fava (absent).* ! Marquis A. Dalla Valle de Mirabello.J Japan jjoshii Terashima Munenori (absent^.* Mr. Naito Ruijiro.f Mexico Senor Don Matias Romero (absent^.* Senor Don Cayetano Romero. J Netherlands Mr. G. de Weckherlin (absent).? Baron P. de Smeth Van Alphen \ Peru Senor Don J. Federico Elmore.f Portugal Viscount das Nogueiras.* Russia Mr. Charles de Struve.* Mr. Gregoire de \Villamov.f Spain Senor Don Juan Valera.* Sefior Don Enrique Dupuy de Lome.J Sweden and Norway iCount Carl Lewenhaupt (absent).* Mr. C. de Bildt.J Switzerland Colonel Emile Frey.* Major Karl Kloss.f Turkey Uruguay . Tewfik Pasha.* Rustem Effendi.f Senor Don Enrique M. Estrazulas. \ * Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, t Secretary of Legation. \ Counselor and Charge d' Affaires, jf Minister Resident'ancl Consul General. PAY Of CHIEF OFFICERS V. S. NAVY. 55 s PAY OF THE CHIEF OFFICERS OF THE U. S. NAVY. At Sea. On Shore Duty. On Leave or Waiting Orders 9>\ i ooo $13 ooo Vice-Admiral Q.OOO 8 ooo Rear- Admirals 6,OOO 5 o Commodores S OO 4 ooo Captains 4. COO 1 COO 2 8OO Commanders 3, coo 3,000 2 7OO Lieutenant-Commanders First four years ... 2,800 2 4OO 2 OOO After four years 3,000 2,6OO 2 2OO Lieutenants First five years.. 2 400 2 OOO I 6OO After five years. 2 6OO 2,2OO I 8OO Masters First five years 1, 800 I.IOO I 2OO After five years 2,000 I.7CO I 4OO Ensigns First five years I,2OO I, OOO 800 After five years 1,400 I,2OO I, OOO Midshipmen . . I OOO 800 600 Cadet Midshipmen coo coo Coo Mates ooo 700 coo Medical and Pay Directors, Inspectors, and Chief Engineers 4,400 Fleet Surgeons, Paymasters, and Engineers. Surgeons, Paymasters, and Chief Engineers First five years 4,400 2,800 2,400 2,000 Second five years 7,200 2,800 2,400 Third five years 3, coo 3 2OO 2,600 Fourth five years 3 700 3,6OO 2,800 After twenty years 4 2OO 4,OOO 3,000 Passed Assistant Surgeons, Paymasters, and Engineers First five years 2,OOO 1, 8OO I, COO After five years 2,2OO 2,OOO 1,700 Assistant Surgeons, Paymasters, and Engi- neers First five years I 7OO 1, 4OO I, OOO After five years I, QOO 1, 6OO I,2OO Chaplains First five years 2, COO 2,OOO I OOO After five years 2 8OO 2.3OO I QOO Boatswains, Gunners, Carpenters, and Sail- makers First three years 2OO QOO 7OO 3OO I, OOO 800 Third three years ,4OO I.3OO 9OO Fourth three years ,6OO I,3OO I, OOO After twelve years ,800 1, 600 I,2OO Cadet Engineers (after examination) ,OOO 800 600 664 /v/ YMENTS FOR PENSIONS. PAY OF CHIEF OFFICERS OF THE U. S. ARMY. GRADE OR RANK. 1 Pay of Officers in Active Service. Yearly Pay. First 5 years service. After 5 years service. After 10 years service. After 15 years service. After 20 years service. General $n.<;oo 10 /. C. 20 /. f. 30 /. c 40 /. c. 11,000 7 5OO Brigadier-General S.SQO 3,500 3,000 2,500 2,000 ,800 ,800 ,800 ,600 ,500 ,500 ,400 ,500 *3,850 3,3 2,750 2,200 1,980 1,980 1,980 1,760 1,650 1,650 1,540 1,650 $4,200 3,600 3,000 2,400 2,160 2,160 2J60 1,920 1, 800 1, 800 1, 680 1, 800 $4,500 3,900 3,250 2,600 2,340 2,340 2,340 2,080 1,950 1,950 1,820 1,950 $4,500 4,000 3-500 2,800 2,520 2,520 2,520 2,240 2,IOO 2,100 1,960 2,100 Lieutenant-Colonel Major Captain, mounted. .... Captain, not mounted Regimental Adjutant Regimental Quartermaster 1st Lieutenant, mounted.. 1st Lieutenant, not mounted... 2d Lieutenant, mounted 2d Lieutenant, not mounted.. Chaplain PAYMENTS FOR PENSIONS IN 1883. Pensions paid during the Year. Number of Pensioners. STATMS. For Regular Pensions. For Arrears of Pensions. Salary and Expenses of Pension Agents. Total Disburse- ments. 1882. 1883. Dollars. ',948,453-54 4,045.320.08 5.863,544- 76 5.636,155-64 2,087.440.80 3,616,997.31 a.755.227-40 5.".507. So 2,842,400.69 1,600,370.16 3,282,322.78 2,809,535.73 3,176,762.17 3.054975.95 408,379.66 4,088.557-37 4,174,624 48 3,572.433-2' Dollars. 52".47 4,091.60 5,26->.30 8.43'- 57 4.216.72 1.4I3-73 2,760.28 4,126.67 7.48383 7.353-6o 3.515-42 3.965-93 5.364-72 4,081.47 2,198.01 8,053.01 6,970.37 Dollars. 11,938.11 18,858.60 22,643.97 23,562.99 13-264-55 14,358-56 '4.039-04 17,483-23 '5,379-76 8,353-37 I439i-i3 '9.205-99 '7.99749 13.224.50 5,859.22 19,240.51 16,438.17 22,915.73 Dollars. 1,960,913.12 4,068,270.28 5,89 1,449-03 5,668,150.20 2,104,922.07 3,632,769-60 2,772,026.72 5,122,117.40 2,865,264.28 1,616,077.13 3.300,229.33 2,832,707.65 3,200,124.38 3,072,281.92 414,238.88 4,109,995.89 4.199,115.66 3,6oi,3'9-3' 11,526 22,004 !2 >5 ! 7 26,163 11,028 13.860 ",999 18,805 'IS 13.033 16,017 18,715 16,750 1,962 20,962 5,i93 90.324 11,827 23,495 25.854 27.686 ",007 16,051 13,080 20.921 17,189 7,001 I4-65J 16,141 '9,300 16,006 2,191 22,338 17.525 -1-3-J Massachusetts Illinois Ohio New Hampshire... Michigan Tennessee Kentucky Wisconsin .^ New York Pennsylvania Pennsylvania ........ California Kansas Oist. of Columbia- ; 60,064,009.23 79.808.70 288,154.92 60,431.972.85 285,697 1303.658 BALANCE OF TRADE. 665 BALANCE OF TRADE, Showing our imports, our exports, and the excess either way for twenty years. YEAR. Merchandise at Gold Value. Imports. Exports. Excess. 1864 $316,447,283 238,745.580 434,812,066 395,703,100 357.43 6 .440 417,506,379 435.958,408 520,223,684 626,505,077 642,136,210 567,406,342 533,005,436 460,741,19! 451,323,126 437.05I,53 2 445,777,775 667,954,746 642,664,628 724,639,574 723,180,914 $158,887,988 162,013,500 348,859,522 297,303,653 281,952,899 286,117,697 392,771,768 442,820,178 444,177,586 522,479,317 586,283,040 513,441,711 540,384,671 602,475,220 694,848,496 710,439,44! 835,638,658 -902,367,346 750,542,257 823,839,402 Imports $157,559,295 Imports 76,732,082 Imports 85,952,544 Imports 98,459,447 Imports 75,483,541 Imports 131,388,682 Imports 43,186,640 Imports 77,403,506 Imports 182,417,491 Imports 119,656,288 Exports 18,876,698 Imports 19,563,725 Exports 79,623,480 Exports 152,152,094 Exports 257,796,964 Exports 264,661,666 Exports 167,683,912 Exports 259,702,718 Exports 25,902,683 Exports 100,658,488 1865 1866 1867... 1868 1869 1870 1871 ... 1872 1873 1874 1875... 1876..., 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 YEAR. Specie. Imports. Exports. Excess. 1864 $13,115,612 9,810,072 10,700,092 22,070,475 14,188,368 19,807,876 26,419,179 21,270,024 13,743.689 21,480,937 28,454,906 20,900,727 15,936,681 40,774,414 29,821,314 20,296,0- x> 93. 34,3 10 "0,575,497 42,472,390 28,489,391 $105,396,541 67,643,226 86,044,07 1 60,868,372 93,784,102 57,138,380 58,155,666 98,441,988 79,877,534 84,608,574 56,630,405 92,132,142 56,506,302 56,162,237 33,733,225 24,997,441 17,142,919 19,406,847 49,417,479 31,820,333 Exports $92,280,929 Exports 57,833,154 Exports 75,343,079 Exports 38,797,897 Exports 79,595,734 Exports 37,330,504 Exports 31,736,486 Exports 77,171,964 Exports 66,133,845 Exports 63,127,637 Exports 28,175,499 Exports 71,231,425 Exports 40,569,621 Exports 15,387,753 Exports 3,911,911 Exports 4,701,441 Imports 75,891,391 Imports 91,168,65^) Exports 6,945,089 Exports 3,330,942 1865. 1866 1867 1868 1869 1870 1871 .. 1872... 187? .. 1874 1875... 1876 1877 1878..., 1870 . 1880 1881 1882 1883 666 ki-:ri-:\n-:s or THE VNITED STATES. YEAR ENDED Jl'NH 30. Amount collected. Expense of collecting. Per cent, of cost. 1858 ... $41,789,620.96 $2.901,116.89 6.04 1859..., 4.U, ;o; 824.18 3.4.07,071.77 685 1860 51.187,51 1.87 1,117 188.15 6.27 1861 3Q (82.I3C.64 2,84^.4^.84 7.18 1862 49,0156.197.62 1,276,560.19 6.67 1863... 69,059,642.40 3.181,026.17 4.60 u 1864 102,116,1 52.99 4,192,582.41 4.09 u> 1865... 84 928,260.60 5,41 5,440.12 6.1Q w 1866 1 70,046, 6? i. ?8 5 142,460.00 2.98 1867 176,417,810.88 5,761,070 OI ^.26 w 1868 164,464.^99.56 7,641,116.68 4.65 1869 180,048,426.63 5,388,082.31 2.99 a 1870 194,578 ^74.44 6,233,747.68 3.20 1871 .. 206,270,408.05 6,568,150.61 3.18 H 1872 216,370,286.77 6,950,173.88 3-21 p 1871 188,089.522.70 7.077,864.70 3.76 u 1874 161,101,811.69 7,321,469.94 449 w 1875... 157 167,722.15 7,028,521.80 447 1876 148,071,984.61 6,704,858.09 4.53 H 1877 130,956,493.07 6,501,037.57 4.96 1878 130,170,680.20 5,826,974.32 447 1879 137.250,047.70 5,477,421.52 3.99 1880 186,522,064.60 6,023,253.53 3.23 1881 198 159076.02 6,383,288.10 3.22 1882 220,410,730.25 6,506,359.26 2.95 1883... 214,706,496.93 6,593,509.43 3.07 1863... $37,640,787.95 $108,685.00 0.29 1864 109,741,134.10 251,172.99 0.23 1865... 209,464,215.25 385,239.52 0.18 1866 309,226,813.42 5,783,128.77 1.87 ^ 1867 266,027,537.43 7,335,029.81 2.77 55 1868 191,087,589.41 8,705,366.36 4.55 a 1869... 158,356,460.86 7,257,176.11 4-59 > y 1870... 184,899,756.49 7,253,439.81 3.92 2: 1871... 141,098,151.61 7,593,714.17 5.30 _; 1872..., 130,642,177.72 5,694,116.86 4.36 < -j 1873 .. 1 11,729 314.14 5,340,230.00 4.69 55 1874 102,409,784.90 4,509,976.05 4.40 y 1875 1 10,007,493.58 4,289,442.71 3-89 H 1876 116,700,732.03 3,942,613.72 3-38 S5 1877 118,630,407.83 3,556,943.85 2.99 1878 110,581,624.74 3,280,162 22 2.96 U W 1879 113,561,610.58 3,527,956.56 3-i6 H 1880 124,009,373 92 3,657,105.10 2-95 1881 115,264,185.51 4,327,793.24 1.20 1882 146,497,595.45 4,097,241.34 2-79 1883 144,720,368.98 4^24,707,39 3-05 PUBLIC DEBT OF THE UNITED STATES. 667 PUBLIC DEBT OF THE UNITED STATES. To January ist of each year to 1842. To July ist,from I79 1 75,463,476 5 2 1792 77,227,9 2 4 66 1793 80,352,634 1794 78,427,404 1795 80,747,58? 1796 83,762,172 i?97 82,064,479 1798 79,228,529 1799 78,408,669 i8oo 82,976,294 1801 83,038,050 1802 86,712,632 1803 77,054,686 1804 86,427,120 1805 82,312,150 1806 75,723,270 1807 69,218,398 1808 65,196,317 1809 57,023,192 1810 53, 1 73,2 17 1811 48,005,587 1812 45,209,737 1813 55,962,827 1814 81,487,846 1815 99,833,660 1816 127,334,933 1817 123,491,965 1818 103,466,633 1819 95,529,648 1820 91,015,566 1821 '.... 89,987,427 1822 93,546,676 1823 90,875,877 1824 90,269,777 1825 83,788,432 1826 81,054,059 1827 : 73,987,357 1828 67,475,043 1829 58,421,413 1830 48,565,406 1831 39,123,191 1832 24,322,235 1833 7,001,698 1834 4,760,082 1835 37,513 1836 336,957 1837 3,308,124 $10,434,221 14 l8 39 3,573,343 82 , l8 40 5,250,875 54 77 1841 1... I3,594,48o 73 3911842 20,601,226 28 07 1843 32,742,922 oo 33 '844 : 23,461,652 50 12 1845 I 59 2 5,3O3 01 77 1846 15,550,202 97 35 1847 38,826,534 77 80)1848 47,044,862 23 25 1849 63,061,858 69 !850 63,452,773 55 1851 68,304,796 02 501852 66,199,34! 71 "'853 59,803,117 70 1854 42,242,222 42 1855 -. 35,586,858 5 6 856 31,972,537 90 1857 28,699,831 85 1858 44,911,881 03 1859 58,496,837 88 1860 64,842,287 88 1861 90,580,873 72 1862 524,176,412 13 1863 1,119,772,138 63 1864 1,815,784,370 57 1865 2,680,647,869 74 1866 2,773,236,173 69 15 1867 2,678,126,103 87 661868 2,611,687,851 19 98 1869 2,588,452,213 94 28 1870.... 2,480,672,427 81 77 1871 2,353,211,332 32 ?i 1872 2,253,251,328 78 04 30 99 1873 ................... 2,234,482,993 20 1874 ................... 2,251,690,468 43 87 1875 ..... . ............. 2,232,284,531 95 67)1876 ................... 2,180,395.067 15 50 1877 ................... 2,205,301,392 10 68^878 .................. 2,256,205,892 53 18 1879 ................... 2,245,495,072 04 83 1880 .................. 2,120,415,370 63 08 1881 ...... ............ 2,069,013,569 58 05 1882 ................. 1,918,312,994 03 83 1883 ................... 1,884,171,728 07 07 668 POLITICAL DIVISION OF THE HOUSE. POLITICAL DIVISION OF THE PRESENT HOUSE OF REPRE. SENTATIVES. STATES. 6 2 d V A STATES. 1 Q * an g IA Arkansas 5 Nebraska California 6 Nevada I I New Hampshire 2 Connecticut. 1 New Jersey Delaware *. i New York 21 13 Florida . i I North Carolina 8 I 10 Ohio n 8 II Oregon i Indiana Pennsylvania 12 15 Iowa 4 7 Rhode Island 2 7 South Carolina 6 I Kentucky 2 Tennessee 8 2 Louisiana. . JE I Texas 10 I Maine Vermont 2 Maryland 4 2 Virginia 4 5 Massachusetts . "... 7 West Virginia i i Michigan 6 e Wisconsin 6 3 Minnesota ; Mississippi ... 6 Total... 1 08 124 Total 322 Greenback I Vacancies... 2 325 [Went into operation on the first Wednesday in March, 1789.] PREAMBLE. WE, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the com- mon defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Con- stitution for the United States of America. ARTICLE I. OF THE LEGISLATIVE POWER. SECTION 1. All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives. OF THE HOrSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. SEC. 2. The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several States, and the elec- tors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State Legislature. No person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the age of twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen. Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their re- spective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other persons. The actual enumeration shall be made within three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law direct. The num- ber of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but each State shall have at least one Representative; and, until such enume- ration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to choose three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode Island and Providence Planta- tions one, Connecticut five. New York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five and Georgia three. When vacancies happen in the representation from any State, the execu- tive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies. The House of Representatives shall choose their speaker and other offi- cers ; and shall have the sole power of impeachment. OF THE SENATE. SEC. 3. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof, for six years ; and each Senator shall have one vote. Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence of the first iclection, they shall be divided as equally as maybe into three classes. The seats of the Senators of the first class shall be vacated at the expira- tion of the second year, of the second class at the expiration of the fourth year, and of the third class at the expiration of the sixth year, so that one-third may be chosen every second year; and if vacancies happen by resignation, or otherwise, during the recess of the Legislature of any State, the executive thereof may make temporary appointments until the nexf meeting of the Legislature, which shall then fill such vacancies. 669 6/o CONSTITUTION No person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the age ot thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States ami who filial 1 not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State for which he shall be choM-n. The Vice- President of the United states shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they bo equally divided. The Senate shall choose tin ir other officers, and havo a President [>rn ti ni/>i>re, in the absence of the Vice-President, or when he shall exercise the office of President of the 1'nited States. The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments. When sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or allirination. When tho President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside; and no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of the members present. Judgment in cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit, under the United States; but the party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment and punishment according to law. MANNER OF ELECTING MEMBERS. SEC. 4. The times, places and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed In each State by the Legislature thereof: but the Congress may at any time, by law. make or alter such regulations, except as to the places of choosing Senators. CONGRESS TO ASSEMBLE ANNUALLY. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such moot- ing shall be on -the first Monday in December, unless they shall by law appoint a different day. POWERS. SEC. 5. Each house shall be the judge of the elections, returns apd quali- fications of its own members, and a majority of each shall constitute a 3uorum to do business: but a smaller number may adjourn from day to ay, and may be authorized to compel the attendance of absent members, in Mich manner, and under such penalties, as each house may provide. Each house may determine the rulesof its proceedings, punish its mem- bers for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds, expel a member. Each house shall keep a Journal of its proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such parts as may, in their judgment, require secrecy; and the yea-; and nays of the members of either house on any question shall, at the desire of one-fifth of those present, be entered on the journal. Neither house, during the session of Congress, shall, without tho con- sent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other place than that in which the two houses shall be sitting. COMPENSATION, ETC., OF MEMBERS. REP. fi. The Senators and Representatives shall receive a compensation for their services, to be ascertained by law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States. They shall in all easses, except treason, felony and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at --ion of their respective houses, and in going to and returning from the same ; and for any speech or debate in either house, they shall not be questioned in any other plaee. No Senator or Representative shall, during the time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil office under the authority of the United Stati-s, which shall have been created, or the emolument's whereof shall have been lncrea-. ( -d during such time; and no person holding any office under the United States, shall be a member of either house during his continuance in office. MANKTTR OF PASSING BILLS, ETC. Srr. 7. All bills for rai>ing revenue shall originate in the House of Repre- sentatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments as on wther bills. OF THE UNITED STATES. Every bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it becomes a law, be presented to the President of the United States; if he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his objections, to that house in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the objections at large on their journal, and proceed to recon- sider it. If, after such reconsideration, two-thirds of that house shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, together with the objections, to the other house, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two-thirds of that house, it shall become a law. But in all such cases the votes of both houses shall be determined by yeas and nays, and the names of the persons voting for and against the bill shall be entered on the journal of each house respectively. If any bill shall not be returned by the President within ten days (Sunday excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a law, in like manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their adjournment prevent its return, in which case it shall not be a law. Every order, resolution or vote, to which the concurrence of the Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a question of adjournment), shall be presented to the President of the United States; and before the same shall take effect, shall be approved by him, or being disapproved by him, shall be re-passed by two-thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives, according to the rules and limitations pre- scribed in the case of a bill. POWER OF CONGRESS. SEc. 8. The Congress shall have (power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States; To borrow money on the credit of the United States; To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian tribes; To establish an uniform rule of .naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States; To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and flx the standard of weights and measures; To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and cur- rent coin of the United States; To establish post-offices and post-roads; To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries ; To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court- To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations; To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water; To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years; To provide and maintain a navy; To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions; To provide for organizing, arming and disciplining the militia, and for governing such part of them as maybe employed in the service of tlv United States, reserving to the States respectively the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according the discipline prescribed by Congress; To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such dis- trict (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular States and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places pur- chased bv the consent of the Legisiature of the State in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards and otb< needful buildings; and To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Cou- 6/2 CONSTITUTION stitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof. LIMITATION OF THE POWERS OF CONGRESS. SEC. 9. The migration or importation of such persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a tax or duty may be imposed on such importation, not exceeding ten dol- lars for each person. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in case < nf rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it. No bill of attainder or expost facto law shall be passed. No capitation, or other direct" tax shall be laid, unless in proportion to the census or enumeration hereinbefore directed to be taken. No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any State. No preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce or revenue to the ports of one State over those of another; nor shall vessels bound to, or from, one State, be obliged to enter, clear or pay duties in another. No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by law; and a regular statement and account of the receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be published from time to time. No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States : and no. person holding any office of profit or trust under them shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any' present, emolument, office or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince or foreign State. LIMITATION OF THE POWERS OF THE INDIVIDUAL STATES. SEC. 10. No State shall enter into any treaty, alliance or confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money: emit bills of credit; make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts; pass any hill of attaindi -r, > r /inxt fm-tn law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts, or grant any title of nobility. No siate shall, without the consent of the Congress, lay any imposts or duties on imports or exports, except what may oe absolutely necessary for executing its inspection laws; and the net produce of ail duties anil imposts, laid by any State on imports or exports, shall be for the use of the treasury of the United States; and all such laws shall be subject to the re- vision and control of the Congress. No State shall, without the consent of Congres , lay any duty of tonnage, keep troops, or hips of war, In time of peace, enter into any agreement or compact with another State, or wit h a foreign power, or engage in war, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent danger as will not admit of delay. ARTICLE II. EXECUTIVE POWER. SEC. 1. The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his office during the term of four years, and together with the Vice- President, chosen for the same term, be elected as follows : MANNER OF ELECTING. Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress; hut no senator or Representative, or person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States, shall be appointed an elector. The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by ballot for two persons, of whom one at least shall not be an inhabitant with the same State as themselves. And they shall make a list of all the persons voted for, and of the number of votes for each ; which list they shall si-rn and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the I'nited states, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representa- tive", open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted. The per -on having the greatest number of votes shall he the President, it" such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if there be more than one who have such majority, and have an equal OF THE UNITED STATES. 673 number of votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately choose by ballot one of them for President; and if no person have -a majority, then from the five highest on the list the said House shall in like manner choose the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by States, the representation from each State having one vote ; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the States, and a majority of all the States shall be necessary to a choice. In every case, after the choice of the President, the person having the greatest number of votes of the electors shall be the Vice-President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal V>tes, the Senate shall choose from them by ballot the Vice-President. TIME OP CHOOSING ELECTORS. The Congress may determine the time of choosing the electors, and the day on which they shall give their votes ; which day shall be the same throughout the United States. WHO ELIGIBLE. No person except a natural bom citizen, or a citizen of the United States at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the United States. WHEN THE PRESIDENT'S POWER DEVOLVES ON THE VICE-PRESIDENT. In case of the removal of the President from office, or of his death, resig- nation or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the said office, the same shall devolve on the Vice-president, and the Congress may by law provide for the case of removal, death, resignation or inability, both of the President and Vice-President, declaring what officer shall then act as President, and such officer shall act accordingly, until the disability be removed, or a President shall be elected. PRESIDENT'S COMPENSATION. The President shall, at stated times, receive for his services a compensa- tion which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that period any other emolument from the United States, or any of them. OATH. Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the following oath or affirmation : " I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and wiU, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." POWERS AND DUTIES. SEC. 2. The President shall be Commander-in-Chief of the army and navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several States when called into the actual service of the United States; he may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive de- partments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices, and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offences against the United States, except in cases of impeachment. He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two- thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, Judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose ap- pointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law ; but the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of law, or in the heads of departments. The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall ex- pire at the end of their next session. SEC. 3. He shall, from time to .time, give to the Congress information of the state of the Union, and recommend to their consideration such mea- 674 CONSTITUTION Biyes as he shall Judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary occasions, convene both houses, or either of them, and in case of disagree- ment, between them, with respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he sliall think proper; lie shall receive am- bassadors n ml other public ministers; he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and shall commission all the officers of the United States. OFFICERS UKMOVED. S i-:r. I. The President, Vice-President., and all civil officers of the I'nited States, shall be removed from office, on Impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors. ARTICLE III. OF THE JUDICIARY. SEC. 1. The judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such Inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both of the Supreme and infe- rior Courts, shall hold their offices during good behavior, and shall, at stated times, receive for their services a compensation which shall not bo diminished during their continuance in office. SKC. 2. The judicial power shall extend to all cases, In law and oqu it; y, arising under this Constitution, the laws of the I "ni ted. States, and treaties made, or which sliall be made, under their authority ; "to all cues affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls; to all cases of admiralty and maritime Jurisdiction ; to controversies to which the United States shall he a party; to controversies between two or more states; between a State and citizens of another State; between citizens of different States; bet ween citizens of the same State claiming lands under grants of different States, and between a State, or the citizens thereof, and foreign States, citizens or subjects. TtTRISDICTTOX OF SUPREME COURT. In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, and those in which a State shall be a party, the Supreme ( 'otirt shall have original jurisdiction. In all the other cases before mentioned, the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such exceptions, and under such regulations as the Congress shall make. OF TRIADS FOR CRIMES. The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by jury; and such trial shall be held In the State where the said crimes shall have been commuted; but when not committed within any State, the trial shall be at such place or places as the Congress may by law have directed. OF TREASON. SEC. 3. Treason against the United states shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person sliall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to tne same overt act, or on confession in open < 'ourt. The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason, but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture, except during the life of the person attainted. ARTICLE IV. STATE ACTS. SEC. 1. Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the public acts, records and judicial proceedings of every other State. And the Con- gress may, by general laws, prescribe the manner In which such acts, records and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof PRIVILEGES OF CITI/K.NS. S !:. '_'. The citi/ens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and im in unities of citi/ens in the several States. A person charged in any Stale with tnmson, felony or other crime, who bha.ll flee from Justice, and be found in another State, shall, on demand of OF THE UNITED STATES. 675 the executive authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having jurisdiction of the crime. RUNAWAYS TO BE DELIVERED UP. No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due. NEW STATES. SEC. 3. New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Unio . ; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other State ; nor any State be formed by the junction of two or more States, or parts of States, without the consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress. TERRITORIAL AND OTHER PROPERTY. The Congress shall have power to dispose of, and make all needful rules and regulations respecting, the territory, or other property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to prejudice any claims of the United States, or of any particular State. SEC. 4. The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion; and, on application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened), against domestic. violence. ARTICLE V. AMENDMENTS. The Congress, whenever two-thirds of both Houses shall deem it neces- sary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution ; or, on the applica- tion of the Legislatures of two-thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three-fourths of the several States, or by Conven- tions in three- fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by Congress; provided, that no amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight, shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth Section of the first Article ; and that no State, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage iu the Senate. ARTICLE VI. DEBTS. All debts contracted, and engagements entered into, before the adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid .against the United States under this Constitution as under the Confederation. SUPREME LAW OF THE LAND. This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding. OATH. NO RELIGIOUS TEST. The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by oath or affirmation to support this Constitution ; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office, or public trust, under the United States. ARTICLE VII. The ratifications of the Conventions of nine States shall be sufficient for the establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the same. Done in Convention, by the unanimous consent of the States present, 6;6 CONSTITUTION Hi.- ^.\. !)(. nth day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the twelfth. In witness whereof we have hereunto sub- scribed our names. GEORGE WASHINGTON, President, and Deputy from Virginia. Nnp Hampshire John Langdon, Nicholas Oilman. Massachusetts *$a,- thaniel Gorham, Rufus Kiiij^. Connecticut William Samuel Johnson, Roger Hherman. Xew York Alexander Hamilton. Neiv Jersey William Livingston, David Brearley, William Patterson, Jonathan Dayton. Penn- xi/ti-iutiu Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Mifflin, Robert Morris, George Clymer, Thomas Fitzsimmons, Jared Ingersoll. James Wilson, Govonn'iir Morris. Delaware George Read, Gunning Bedford, Jr., John Dickinson, Richard Bassett, Jacob Broom. Mari/lanrl James M'Henry, Daniel of St. Tho. Jenifer, Daniel Carroll. Vin/inia John Blair, James Madison, Jr. North Carolina William Blount, Richard Dobbs Spaiirht, Hugh William- son. Smith fariiUnn John Rutledge. Chas. Cotesworth Pinckney, Charles Pinckney, Pierce Butler. Georgia William Few, Abraham Baldwin. Attest WILLIAM JACKSON, Secretary. AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION. [The first- ten amendments were proposed by Congress at their first session, in 1789. The eleventh was proposed in 1794, and'the twelfth in 1803.] ARTICLE I. FREE EXERCISE OF RELIGION. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. ARTICLE II. RIGHT TO BEAR \ KM-. A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right cf the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. ARTICLE III. NO SOLDIER TO BK BILLETED, ETC. No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house without the consent of the owner; nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law. ARTICLE FV. UNREASONABLE SEARCHES PROHIBITED. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated ; and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. ARTICLE V. CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS. No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise Infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in IM-I'- arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service, in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be put twice in Jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled, in any criminal case, to be a witness against himself; nor be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law; nor hall private property be taken for public use without just compensation. OF THE UNITED STA TES. 677 ARTICLE VI. MODE OF TRIAL. In all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previ- ously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the.aecusation; to be confronted with the witnesses' against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor; and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense. ARTICLE Vn. EIGHT OF TRIAL BY JURY. In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved; and no fact tried by jury shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States than according to the rules of the common law. ARTICLE VIII. BAIL. FINES. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor truel and unusual punishments inflicted. ARTICLE IX. RIGHTS NOT ENUMERATED. The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights, shall not be con- strued to deny or disparage others retained by the people. ARTICLE X. POWERS RESERVED. The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively or to the people. ARTICLE XI. LIMITATION OF JUDICIAL POWER. The judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by citizens of another State, or by citizens or subjects of another State, or by citizens or subjects of any foreign State.. ARTICLE XII. ELECTION OF PRESIDENT. The electors shall meet in their respective States, a'riti vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an in- habitant of the same State with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President; and they shall make distinct lists of all per- sons voted for as President and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each, which list they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the Government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate; the President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, 'open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted; the person having the greatest number of votes for President shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if no person have such a majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers, not exceeding three, on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately by ballot the President. But in choosing the President, the vote shall be taken by States, the representatives from each State having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the States, and a majority of all the States shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President when- ever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, aa 6;8 CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. in the case of the death or other Constitutional disability of the Pi. M, dent. The person liavinu t hi- Create- 1 number of votes :is Vice- President shall he the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole n umber of electors appointed; and if no person have a majority, then from the i w o 1 1 i ghest numbers on the 1 1st, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President ; a (|iiorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number ot Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be nocssary to a choice. But no person Constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States. [Ratified in 1865.] ARTICLE XIII. SKC. 1. Neither Slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punish- ment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their Jurisdiction. si c . _>. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. [Ratified in 1868.] ARTICLE XIV. SEC. 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United states, and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges and immunities of citizens of the United states. Nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. SKC. '2. Representatives shall he apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of per- sons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed; but .whenever the right to vote at any election for electors of President and Vice-President, or United States Representatives in Congress, executive and judicial officers, or the members of the Legislature therof, is denied to any of the male in- habitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion or other crimes, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in that state. SKC. :?. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or mili- tary, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath as a member of Congress, or as an officer or the United States, or as a member of any state Legislature, or as an executive or judi- cial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof; but Congress may, by a vote of two- thirds of each House, remove such disability. SKC. 4. The validitv of the public debt of the United States authorized by law, including debts incurred for the payment of pensions and bounties for service in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be ques- tioned: but neither the united states nor any State shall assume to pay any debt or obligation Incurred In aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slavii, but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be Illegal and void. SKC. ">. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legis- lation, the provisions of this article. [Ratified in 1870.] ARTICLE XV. SKC. 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any State, on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude. SEC. 2. The Congress shall have power to euforce this Article by appro- priate legislation- p -, >\J THE LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara STACK COLLECTION THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW. 10m-10,'63(E118884)476D UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY